Face-off in Catalonia as independence poll hangs in the balance

VOTERS are ready to defy heavy security today to ensure the independence poll in Catalonia goes ahead – despite the referendum being banned by the Spanish government.

Catalonia’s regional administration is attempting to hold a ballot on splitting from Spain but the move has been ruled illegal by Madrid.

Police have sealed off 1300 of 2315 schools designated as polling stations, the central administration in the Spanish capital said last night.

Meanwhile, 163 schools earmarked as voting centres were occupied by pro-referendum families.

Parents supporting the ballot across the north-eastern region arranged to occupy the buildings throughout the weekend.

Yoga sessions, film screenings and picnics were organised at some of the facilities. Officers were told to refrain from using violence to remove parents and students but last night told the separatists they must leave by dawn.

Enric Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish official in the north-eastern region, said anyone remaining in schools after 6am will need to be removed in line with a judge’s orders.

“I trust in the common sense of Catalans and that people will operate with prudence,” he said.

Quim Roy, a father of two daughters, said police told the few dozen parents and children at the Congres-Indians primary school in Barcelona on Saturday morning about the deadline and warned them not to display pro-independence material.

He added: “If they tell me I can’t be in a public school to exercise my democratic rights, they will have to take me out of here. I won’t resist, but they will have to carry me out.”

Police also took control of the regional government’s telecommunications centre after Catalonia’s High Court ordered the prevention of electronic voting and instructed Google to delete an application it said was being used to spread information on the vote.

Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont insisted the vote would go ahead regardless of the Spanish Government’s efforts.

He said: “Everything is prepared at the more than 2000 voting points so they have ballot boxes and voting slips, and have everything people need to express their opinion.”

More than 4000 members of Spain’s Guardia Civil were dispatched to the autonomous region this week amid concerns over divided loyalties in the local police force, the Mossos d’ Esquadra.

Authorities had wanted to house the officers on four cruise ships – two in Barcelona, one in Tarragona and another in Palamos – but a backlash from local dock workers disrupted the plans as they refused to help them disembark.

Catalonia, a wealthy region of 7.5 million people in north-eastern Spain, has its own language and culture but is not recognised as a separate nation under the constitution.

Polling figures show a narrow majority of Catalans oppose independence but it is unlikely many No voters will take part in the ballot.

SNP Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman, who is in the region as part of a Parliamentary delegation, said: “People who don’t want to vote Yes are maybe in the position where they will not vote at all. That would have the impact of undermining confidence in the vote.

“But the numbers for both Yes and No might be enhanced by the action of the Spanish Government.”

A closing rally for the independence campaign was organised for Barcelona on Friday evening, but opposing events also took place outside town halls in major cities including Cordoba, Malaga and Zaragoza.