Barcelona, Spain: Spanish federal police have clashed with Catalan separatists across this city and in neighbouring Girona as voting in a disputed referendum got under way.
The Madrid government and Spain’s Constitutional Court have declared Sunday’s independence vote to be illegal, and authorities have attempted to prevent polling stations from opening. That tactic, however, has failed, and Catalans turned out in large numbers to likely overwhelmingly vote in favour of independence.
At one polling station, where Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the Catalan regional assembly was due to vote, police smashed their way in as they sought to prevent him from voting. He wan’t there, and voted elsewhere in a move typical of the cat-and-mouse tactics of the past week in setting up the independence vote.
Police also fired rubber bullets in central Barcelona, El Periodico newspaper reported, at the intersection of two streets as violence erupted during the vote, which has thrown Spain into its worst constitutional crisis for decades.
Officers with riot shields jostled with hundreds of voters outside one station at a school in Barcelona as the crowd chanted: “We are people of peace!”
Armoured vans and an ambulance were parked nearby.
Catalan emergency services by 2pm local time were reporting that 38 people had been injured, with one man struck in the eye with a rubber bullet fired by the federal Guardia Civil police officers and requiring surgery.
Barcelona’s scheduled football game with Las Palmas, scheduled for 4.15, appeared to be in doubt after the Canary Islands’ club said it would wear a Spanish flag on its shirts in support of a unified Spain.
Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of using “unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible” violence in the crackdown on the referendum.
The batons, rubber bullets and violence used by Spanish police to prevent voting in what Spanish authorities have said was an illegal referendum had shown a “dreadful external image of Spain”, he told reporters.
“The unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible violence of the Spanish state today has not only failed to stop Catalans’ desire to vote ... but has helped to clarify all the doubts we had to resolve today,” he said.
At one polling station in northeastern Barcelona, voters waited patiently for more than 90 minutes to cast their ballots, with the vast majority voting for independence.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had warned that the organisers of the referendum face prosecution. Some 700 mayors across the Catalan region had been warned that they also risk jail if any municipal facilities are used to host the referendum.
Overnight, the Guardia Civil took control on some polling places, preventing the organisers from setting up ballot boxes. At schools where polling places were set up, authorities blocked mobile phone and internet access.
The Madrid government has said that anyone who assists in organising the balloting faces fines of €300,000 (Dh1.3 million), and it ordered police to take the documents of anyone voting. So far, that doesn’t seem to have happened.
The Catalan government eases restrictions requiring Catalan to vote in specific polling stations after it became apparent that the central government was following though on its promises to shut down polling stations.
Puigdemont has said that if a majority of votes are cast for separation, he will made a declaration of independence as early as Tuesday.
The reality is that most pro-unity supporters have stayed away from the polls, virtually assuring the separatists of a win.
The political crisis is the worst in Spain since the restoration of democracy four decades ago following the death of dictator General Francisco Franco. The separatists say that Rajoy’s heavy-handed handling of the referendum is reminiscent of the Franco era.
— With inputs from agencies
