Catalan referendum: 761 injured in clashes in Spain, PM Mariano Rajoy calls the move ‘unconstitutional’

Madrid, October 2: The event that’s creating a ruckus in the Middle East is being repeated in Spain too. The Kurdistan referendum and Catalonia referendum is on the same lines. Meanwhile, Catalonia has overwhelmingly voted for independence from Spain, with 90 per cent of over two million votes counted saying "yes", the regional government has said.

 

According to voting figures issued early on Monday morning, 90.9 per cent of the votes now counted, or 2,020,144 were in favour of independence, and 7.87 per cent, just 176,565, were against.

 

At least 761 people were injured in clashes in Catalonia yesterday amid the referendum on the region's independence from Spain. Catalan emergency officials said that 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.  

The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court. Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets and forced their way into activist-held polling stations as thousands flooded the streets to vote in an independence referendum. 

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont condemned the action of federal police and said the unjustified use of violence by the Spanish state will not stop the will of the Catalan people. However, the Spanish government has said repeatedly it does not recognise the referendum, let alone its results. Outside Catalonia in the rest of Spain, some segments of the media and politicians argue that the referendum infringed basic electoral regulations, whilst the country’s constitutional court already declared it illegal.

 

 

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insists there has been no independence vote in Catalonia. Rajoy has called for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue today.