Select date
90% of voters said ‘Yes’ to independence from Spain – Catalan government
The overwhelming majority of Catalans who participated in the banned referendum have voted in favor of independence from Spain, the Catalan government has announced.
READ MORE: ‘Catalonian citizens won the right to statehood’ – regional president
Over two million Catalans, or 90.9 percent of those who voted said ‘Yes’ in Sunday's referendum, regional authorities said. Only 7,87 percent, or 176,565 voters said ‘No’ when asked if they want to attain independence from Madrid.
The Catalan government said the result reflects only the ballots that “were not seized” during police raids on polling stations throughout the day.
"Out of the 2,262,424 ballots that were not seized, 2,020,144 were YES votes, 176,566 were NO votes, 45,586 in blank and 20,129 null votes"
— Catalan Government (@catalangov) October 1, 2017
“What kind of a democracy steals ballot boxes?” asked Vice President Oriol Junqueras, standing next to government representatives, Raul Romeva and Jordi Turull.
“We will be consistent with the democratic mandate that citizens have given us today,” he added. “Catalonia has won its right to be a new Republic, if this is what the Parliament decides.”
Of Catalonia’s 5.34 million voters, this represents a turnout of around 42.3 percent, excluding those whose ballots were confiscated and people who were prevented from voting by police.
The massive police crackdown “prevented” an estimated 770,000 people from voting, Catalan government board member Turull said during the vote result announcement.
Turull said out of the 844 people that suffered injuries from police brutality during the vote, 74 have already filed official complaints.
