Elections for the ombudsman of Barcelona: who is running and how is it decided?

BarcelonaThe elections to lead the Barcelona Ombudsman's Office are now underway. The citizen participation process to choose the person who will hold the position for the next five years will be open until June 30. The two candidates are the current ombudsman, David Bondia, who is seeking his second term, and the jurist and former ERC deputy in Parliament, Gemma Calvet.

The vote can be cast through the Decidim Barcelona platform or in person at designated points in the city's ten districts. This Wednesday, the two candidates presented their candidacies to the municipal groups. All residents of the Catalan capital aged 16 and over can participate in the citizen participation process. Once the results of the popular vote are known, the City Council plenary will have the final say.

Although appointed by the municipal plenary, the chosen person exercises their position with independence and has the mission to oversee the City Council's actions, address citizens' complaints, and make recommendations to improve the functioning of municipal services. The term is five years, and the regulations provide for a maximum of two consecutive appointments.

The procedure begins with the presentation of candidacies, which must have the support of entities from the city. Then, a period is opened — in this case, throughout the month of June — for Barcelonians to vote. The results of this process do not directly determine the final election, but they serve to gauge citizen support for the candidacies.

Subsequently, the candidacies reach the plenary session at the proposal of the mayor's office — in this case, by Jaume Collboni — and the groups vote on the designation of the new ombudsman. To be elected, the candidacy must obtain a qualified majority of two-thirds of the councilors.

Priorities of each candidate

In an extraordinary session of the Presidency, Security, and Internal Regime Commission of the Barcelona City Council, the current ombudsman, David Bondia, who is running for re-election, and the jurist and former ERC deputy Gemma Calvet, who is running for the first time, have presented their programs to the councilors, whose votes will be decisive for the appointment.

David Bondia, ombudsman since 2021, under Ada Colau as mayor, has valued his five years of experience and presented his project "Defending the right to live well in the city". Bondia explained that his proposal includes the ombudsman's office—in addition to supervising the City Council's operations—collaborating by making proposals to rethink the city on issues such as homelessness or putting AI at the service of people.

For her part, Gemma Calvet has defended the need for "absolute independence" of the Ombudsman's Office and has stressed that the institution needs to be "renewed" to be "alive". Calvet maintained that "renewal does not imply suspension of the ombudsman" Bondia, although she criticized that, in her opinion, he has not sufficiently addressed the challenges of gender-based violence and equality, and linguistic rights to guarantee Catalan, which for her are priorities.