Votes cast in ‘symbolic’ Catalan referendum

CATALONIA’S government said almost two million voters participated in an informal vote on whether the wealthy northeastern region should secede from the rest of Spain yesterday.
A woman gestures as she casts her ballot at a polling station. Picture: GettyA woman gestures as she casts her ballot at a polling station. Picture: Getty
A woman gestures as she casts her ballot at a polling station. Picture: Getty

The regional Catalan government pushed forward with the vote despite Spain’s constitutional court ordering its suspension last Tuesday after it agreed to hear the Spanish government’s challenge that the poll is unconstitutional.

The Catalan government said that by 6pm local time – two hours before the close of polling, 1,977,531 had voted. Results are expected this morning.

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“Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and vote,” regional president Artur Mas said after depositing his ballot at a school in Barcelona.

The ballot asks voters two questions: should Catalonia be a state, and if so, should it become independent now.

Polls show that the majority of Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants want an official vote on independence, while around half support breaking centuries-old ties with Spain.

Mr Mas has said the vote, which lacks guarantees such as an electoral roll, is only symbolic and will likely lead to anticipated regional elections that will stand-in for a referendum on independence.

There was a festive atmosphere as hundreds lined up in front of another school in Barcelona.

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“I voted for independence because I’ve always felt very Catalan,” said Nuria Silvestre, a 44-year-old teacher. “Maybe I wasn’t so radical before, but the fact that they are prohibiting [the vote] from Madrid has made me.”

Catalan television showed similar lines of voters across the region.

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Spanish state prosecutors announced late on Saturday that they were opening an investigation to determine if by holding the informal vote in defiance of the court’s suspension the Catalan government has broken the law.

Catalonia has seen rallies of hundreds of thousands of pro-independence supporters for the past three years, after Spain’s economic downturn and the Spanish government’s repeated denial to grant Catalonia control over its financial future.

However, the head of Spain’s ruling party in Catalonia, Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, said the vote was a sham because it offered no democratic or legal guarantees and did not have the blessing of the central government.

The ballot comes after two years of escalating tension between the central and the regional government over the issue.

The government argues that Catalonia, which makes up about 16 per cent of Spain’s population, cannot decide something which affects Spain as a whole on constitutional grounds.

However, pro-secession politicians hope a high level of support will prompt central government to sit down with them and negotiate more tax and political autonomy, or even convince Madrid to accept a full-blown independence referendum in the future. Officials from Catalonia’s two main parties have suggested that backing from more than 1.5 million citizens would help their cause.

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