Prez seeks dialogue
Catalonia leader says he has mandate to declare independence from Spain
ARITZ PARRA and JOSEPH WILSON
BARCELONA, Spain — Catalonia’s leader on Tuesday said he had a mandate to declare independence from Spain but stopped short of actually doing so, suspending secession for “a few weeks” to pursue negotiations with the Spanish government.
Spain’s central government responded that it did not accept the declaration of independence and did not consider the Oct. 1 referendum or its results to be valid.
In his highly anticipated speech to the regional parliament, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said the landslide victory in the referendum gave his government the grounds to implement its longheld desire to break century-old ties with Spain.
But he proposed that the regional parliament “suspend the effects of the independence declaration to commence a dialogue, not only for reducing tension but for reaching an accord on a solution to go forward with the demands of the Catalan people.”
“We have to listen to the voices that have asked us to give a chance for dialogue with the Spanish state,” Puigdemont said.
That would help reduce political tensions and reach “an accord on a solution to go forward with the demands of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont said.
About two dozen tractors flying secessionist flags paraded near parliament and thousands of separatists gathered in the promenade next to Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf, where the movement’s main grassroots group has called for a rally.
The Spanish government doesn’t accept the “implicit” declaration of independence by the Catalan separatists and the results of a banned referendum can’t be considered valid, an official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with Spanish government policy, said that the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy cannot accept validating a Catalan referendum law that was suspended by Spain’s Constitution and called the referendum “fraudulent and illegal.”
Rajoy’s government “considers it inadmissible to make an implicit declaration of independence and then leave it in suspension in an explicit manner,” according to the official.
Puigdemont was highly critical of the Spanish government’s response to the referendum and the violent police reaction that left hundreds injured on voting day, but said Catalans have nothing against Spain or Spaniards, and that they want to understand each other better.
“We are not criminals, we are not crazy, we are not pulling off a coup, we are not out of our minds. We are normal people who want to vote,” he said.
Opposition leader Ines Arrimadas of the Ciudadanos (Citizens) party slammed the speech.
“This is a coup. Nobody has recognized the result of the referendum. Nobody in Europe supports what you have just done,” she said.
“Stop saying the Catalan people are united. Above all after what you have done. You have forced us to turn against one another,” she said, addressing Puigdemont during the parliament session.
Some 2.3 million Catalans — or 43 per cent of the electorate in the north-eastern region — voted in the referendum, which the Spanish government said was illegal. Regional authorities say 90 per cent who voted were in favour and declared the results of the vote valid. Those who opposed the referendum had said they would boycott the vote.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday shocked the country by withdrawing his candidacy for the new presidential election ordered by the Supreme Court, saying the election commission has not made changes to avoid the “irregularities and illegalities” cited in the nullified August vote.
It was Odinga’s legal challenge that led the court to nullify the election that President Uhuru Kenyatta won.
The court ordered a new election, set for Oct. 26.
“There’s no intention” on the part of Kenya’s election commission to undertake any changes before the new vote, Odinga told supporters.
He said the commission had “stonewalled meaningful deliberations” on reforms to ensure the election is credible.
He warned that the upcoming vote could be run worse than the first one was.
The Supreme Court on Sept. 1 nullified Kenyatta’s August reelection, citing illegalities in the vote and the election commission’s refusal to allow scrutiny of its computer system.
Justices said that by failing to allow the scrutiny of the computers, the commission failed to disprove Odinga’s claim that hackers infiltrated the servers and manipulated the vote in favour of Kenyatta.