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Spanish police seal off polling stations in Catalonia
[Al Jazeera] Spanish police have sealed off most public buildings earmarked as polling stations for a banned referendum on Catalonia's breakaway from Spain, according to officials.Separatists in the northeastern region on Friday evening and Saturday morning started occupying voting stations in a bid to ensure Sunday's poll, which has been declared illegal by Spanish authorities, goes ahead. The Spanish interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the "majority" of public buildings that had been identified as referendum sites had "stayed shut" and "only a few" are occupied by people "with the only aim" of obstructing police work. The central government in Madrid had previously said that 1,300 of 2,315 designated voting stations have been sealed off by police, who have been mobilised in the thousands in the region. Also earlier on Saturday, Enric Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish official in Catalonia, had said that parents and students were found to be occupying 163 schools and holding activities when police were sealing off facilities. 'Key battlegrounds' Catalonia is a wealthy region within Spain that accounts for about 20 percent of the country's economy. It has its own language, which is taught in schools and universally spoken. Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to attempt to vote in a ballot that will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain's Constitutional Court and Madrid for being at odds with the 1978 constitution. Posted by: Fred 2017-10-01 |
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