There are over 23,100 polling stations across the country in operation today .
More than 35 million Spaniards can exercise their right to vote today Polling stations opened across Spain at 9am this morning as voting in the general election gets underway. In Andalucía voters will also be choosing the next regional government.
Opinion polls have shown a small but consistent Socialist leads in the run up to the poll, but the action of ETA and the shooting dead of an ex Basque Socialist Councillor, Isaías Carrasco, in Mondragón on Friday could have an unknown effect on voting. Turnout is expected to be high out of a pool of more than 35 million potential voters.
The polling stations remain open until 8pm, and the results will be in very quickly given new technology and more than 11,000 PDA’s being used in the collation process. We should know who will be governing Spain for the next four years by midnight tonight. First figures for the turnout, upto 2pm, will be given at 2,30pm.
87,000 men and women of the security forces are on duty to ensure that voting proceeds without incident, 71,000 from the Guardia Civil and National Police and 16,000 local police.
The campaign was marked by the first live TV election debates between the two party leaders, debates which attracted massive audiences, but were very structured and often lost in figures of macro economics. The debates were also an indicating of the constant fighting which has been seen between the Socialists and the Partido Popular over the four years of the past legislature.
In Andalucía the Socialists are expected to return to power; the question there will be whether they can return an absolute majority.
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