BARCELONA (Sputnik) — The voters queue at the polling station in the center of Barcelona before of the upcoming independence referendum in the Spanish autonomous community Catalonia, Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene on Sunday.
The voting is officially projected to start at 9 a.m. (7:00 GMT) and to continue until 8 p.m. (18:00 GMT). A total of 2,315 polling locations were planned to be opened to provide 5.3 million voters an opportunity to cast their ballots. More than 7,000 volunteers will work at the voting locations. However, at the request of the High Court of Catalonia, law enforcement authorities should seal all schools by six in the morning and take them under full control.
About 500 people lined up near one polling station early on Sunday. People continue to come and gather on the roadway, interfering with car traffic.
Dos cops ha passat un helicòpter escola Mare Nostrum #escolesobertes #Catalonia #Catalogne #1Oct #referendumCat #Democracy @escolesobertes pic.twitter.com/6wBj9q9fUO
— Felipe Blasco (@felipeblasco) October 1, 2017
"We came here in the morning, because we know that the police might come and close all the polling stations, but they will see that there are a lot of us and they will be unable to do anything," one of voters, Bernat, told Sputnik.
He said that he and other activists had spent the night in one of the schools in Barcelona together with parents and their children. The school itself is still closed, but it's clear that the people inside did not sleep, but instead play board games and cheer each other.
According to the Catalan government's spokesman, residents of Catalonia are allowed to cast ballots at any polling station during the Sunday referendum on the region's independence from Spain.
"With an identification document people can go to any polling station that will be open," Turull said at a press conference.
He pointed out that in case of shortages in ballots people can use their own ones printed at home.
"If somebody brings ballots from home, it will be possible to use them," Turull said.
The spokesman added that more than 9 million ballots had been seized by Spain's Civil Guard.
Madrid is taking multiple measures to prevent the vote. The Spanish Civil Guard entered Catalonia's Center for Telecommunication and Information Technology (CTTI) on Saturday to switch off the software, necessary to count electronic votes at the independence referendum. It also stopped the activities of the Cesicat, call center providing technical support for the referendum. On Friday, Catalonia's High Court of Justice ordered Google to delete a mobile application devoted to the independence vote, according to media reports.