The Electoral Commission for all operations related to the presentation and proclamation of candidacies in general elections is the Provincial Electoral Commission (Article 169 of Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System).
The Secretary of the Electoral Commission shall assign a number in order of presentation to each candidacy presented and this order shall be maintained in all publications (Article 46.9 of Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System).
The following can present candidates or lists of candidates (Article 44 and 169.3 of Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System):
Parties, federations or coalitions that did not obtain representation in any of the Houses in the previous election shall require the signature of at least 0.1% of the voters registered on the electoral census of the constituency for which they seek election.
No voter may lend their signature to more than one candidacy.
Parties and federations that establish a coalition pact to jointly contest an election must notify the Commission within ten days of the call for elections (31 May to 9 June). Instruction 1/2010, of 9 September, of the Central Electoral Commission, on the application of Article 44.2 of the Organic Law on the General Electoral System with regard to the constitution of electoral coalitions.
This communication must state the name of the coalition, the rules governing it and the persons in charge of its management and coordination bodies (Article 44.2 of Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System).
Groups of electors are political formations constituted with the endorsement of a variable number of signatures of electors only and exclusively to be able to present a candidacy in a specific and determined electoral process.
They are not, therefore, permanent or an association and do not need to be registered in the Register of Political Parties.
Each group of electors is autonomous and independent from any other. Its spatial scope of action is the electoral constituency - without the possibility of collective candidacies, or covering more than one constituency, or federations or coalitions between them - and its period of validity is the specific electoral process for which it was constituted, without being able to be extended beyond it.
In order to stand as a candidate in the general elections, a grouping of electors requires the signatures of at least 1% of those registered on the electoral census in the constituency in which it is standing. No voter may lend their signature to more than one candidacy. Article 169.3 Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System