By Corina Pons

MADRID Spain's postal service said it had enough staff to handle the country's largest ever postal vote for snap elections due on July 23, as a union leader said it needed to hire more to ensure no one was at risk of being disenfranchised.

Two and a half million out of 37.4 million registered voters have opted to vote by post, more than double the one million that did so during the last election in November 2019, the Correos union said.

Voters have been lining up at post offices to register for ballots and, at a time when much of the population is decamping to the coast or countryside for summer holidays, they must complete and return them by July 20.

"There are bottlenecks and queues in some post offices in big cities and also in the beach towns where people are already on holiday," said Alberto Perez, a Correos union leader. "We need more staff."

The postal service said it had already hired almost 20,000 extra staff to handle the additional workload, across 2,300 post offices working under extended opening hours. A third of employees due to be on leave had cancelled their trips to help, it added.

It also criticised conservative opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, a former head of Correos, for appearing to suggest that preventable delays might stop some postal voters from casting their ballots.

"There is a risk that many citizens will not be able to vote by post, and this will be the responsibility of the government," Feijoo told newspaper El Confidencial in an interview published on Thursday.

He also urged postmen and women to work "day and night ...no matter what your bosses say," later saying he was not talking about fraud.

In response, the postal service said it would "stay out of debates that seek to undermine the country's institutions and public services," adding: "The postal voting process in Spain is safe and secure."

DEMOCRATIC CONSENSUS

Political scientist Pablo Simon of Spain's Carlos III University described Feijoo's comments as "very dangerous", given the consensus of support for Spain's democratic institutions since Francisco Franco's dictatorship ended in 1975.

The country's democratic processes have operated largely unquestioned by mainstream parties since then, though a handful of allegations of fraud marred local elections in May.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who called the snap election after his leftist coalition performed badly in May, called Feijoo's remarks "part of a campaign aimed at muddying the political debate."

Many Spaniards reacted with disbelief to the prospect of having to vote in the middle of summer, and queues built up outside some post offices this week as people rushed to register before Thursday's deadline and others handed in completed ballots.

"Everyone I know votes by post because we want to spend a Sunday on the beach instead of voting in the city," said 25-year-old real estate agent Paula Bericart outside Madrid's central postal office.

Ana Sarmiento, 32, and her boyfriend delivered their completed ballots to a post office very early on Thursday before heading to the airport for a holiday abroad. "The ballots arrived yesterday evening so we did it in the very last minute".

Zaira Llano, a second union leader, said excessive workloads could mean delays, and for some out delivering, Spain's punishing heat was proving a challenge.

"There are only 17 of us in this area and I am doing the work of two people," a postman in northern Madrid pushing a full cart told Reuters on Thursday.

(Reporting by Corina Pons, Belen Carreno, David Latona; editing by Charlie Devereux, Aislinn Laing and John Stonestreet)