Vice presidency and foreign affairs to acquire ballot boxes for Oct 1 vote

The Catalan Vice Presidency and Foreign Affairs ministries, under Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva, are to take joint responsibility for acquiring ballot boxes for the independence referendum planned for October 1. Catalan government sources said on Wednesday that the Council of Ministers will transfer responsibility for purchasing the boxes from the Ministry of Governance to the two departments next Tuesday. Catalan governance minister, Meritxell Borras, and her former Secretary General are already being investigated by the High Court of Justice in Catalonia for beginning a tender process for firms to supply the ballot boxes.

The announcement came during a lively debate in the plenary session of the Catalan Parliament on Wednesday, in which the preparations for the referendum and how it is to be carried out took center stage. During the session, the Catalan People’s Party leader, Xavier García Albiol, denounced the “poor organization of a vote that for sure will not take place,” and criticized the lack of definition about who is to take charge of organizing the vote in order to avoid responsibility for it. Albiol added that his party was looking forward to seeing who will take responsibility for the failure of the referendum. For the PP leader, the October 1 vote “is against the law, the Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy.” He also suggested that the vote could not take place, especially as “it has no institutional support, no ballot boxes, no public servants and no social support.”

Meanwhile, the Socialist leader, Miquel Iceta, asked the Catalan president not to ignore the Statute of Autonomy or to disregard the rights of the opposition, warning Puigdemont not to “place the institutions outside the rule of law.”