Counting gets underway in Spanish general election

With slightly more than half of votes counted in Spain's general election on Sunday evening, Pedro Sánchez's Socialist party (PSOE) was in pole position, and expected to get 123 seats in the Spanish Congress.

Among the Catalan parties, the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana party (ERC) was in the lead, and on course to get 15 seats in the parliament, six more than last time.

Meanwhile, the unionist People's Party looked likely to fall from 137 seats to 65, with the also unionist Cuidadanos party set to gain seats, from 32 to 57.

With the left-wing Podemos party likely to get 42 seats, the far-right Vox party would make a forceful debut in parliament with 23 seats.

Among the other Catalan parties, the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya party (JxCat) were on course to gain seven seats.