20-D Spanish Elections: 35.3% have already voted in Catalonia

Barcelona (CNA).- 35.3% Catalan citizens have already voted in the Spanish Elections, which are set to be one of the tightest and most unpredictable in Spain's history. The participation rate in Catalonia is slightly lower than that of the last General Elections, in 2011, when 35.5% had already voted by 14.00 (CET). The region with the highest rate of participation so far is Barcelona, with 35.81%, followed by the Tarragona region with 35.10%, Girona with 34.07% and Lleida with 30.92%. In the whole of Spain, 36.94% of the nearly 36 million Spanish citizens entitled to vote have already done so. In the previous General Elections the figure was slightly higher and 37.88% had already voted by 14.00 (CET). Election Day has started without any remarkable incidents and the 57,486 polling stations have been set up as normal.

Nearly 36 million Spanish citizens are entitled to elect the 350 MPs in the Spanish Parliament and the 208 members of the Senate. Election Day is taking place less than three months after the 27-S Catalan elections, which saw the victory of pro-independence forces – a fact that has definitely focused the electoral campaign and the main parties’ programmes. The 20-D Spanish Elections are also set to be crucial as they may mark the end of the two-party system in Spain comprised of the Conservative People’s Party, PP, and the Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE, which have alternated in the Spanish government since 1982. Two new parties are set to burst into the Spanish Parliament and may have a key role in the post-electoral agreements: anti-Catalan nationalism ‘Ciutadans’ and alternative left ‘Podemos’. They have both shown their force and popular support in the past European, regional and local elections.