Two million Catalans turned out Sunday to vote on independence from Spain in a symbolic referendum poll, defying challenges from the Spanish government.
According to AFP, voters of all ages lined up around the block, some applauding, as polling stations opened after weeks of tense legal wrangling with Spanish authorities. Catalonia’s vice-president Joana Ortega told reporters that 1.977.531 people had voted across the region between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm (12.00 GMT), two hours before polls closed.
Shortly after midnight, she said that some 80.72 percent voted to form a state independent of Spain. Ortega could not give a turnout rate since there was no formal electoral roll, but Catalan authorities said 5.4 million people were eligible to vote overall.
Voters were given two questions to answer, “Do you want Catalonia to be a state?” was the first and in the case of a positive response, voters were asked: “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?”
“Yes-no” response obtained 10.11 percent; “no-no” 4.55 percent; and blank votes accounted for 0.56 percent, with 88.44 percent of the votes counted.
According to Reuters, President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, called the symbolic vote on independence “a complete success” with “clearly more than two million people” participating despite the veto imposed by Madrid.
“Let no one forget, especially the Spanish government, that Catalonia has once again shown that it wants to govern itself,” he said at a hearing in Barcelona after the vote. It is “a giant step in our legitimate aspiration to peacefully and freely decide our future.”
In one of Spain’s richest but most indebted regions, a long-standing yearning for independence has swelled over recent years as recession and political corruption scandals have shaken Spain.