POLICE TOLD TO STRIP POLLING STATIONS BEFORE PLANNED SUNDAY VOTE
BARCELONA Regional police in northeastern Catalonia have received orders from superiors to clear out polling stations by 6 a.m. Sunday to prevent the Catalan government’s planned referendum on independence from Spain from taking place.
An internal memo sent Friday by force chief Major Josep Lluis Trapero says a police patrol is to visit every one of the 2,315 polling stations and will confiscate ballot boxes and electoral papers and shut down the station.
It said officers should not use instruments such as batons and only use force to accompany people out of the polling stations if necessary.
It said the measure was in line with a court order for the regional police and other security forces to ensure that the vote, which Spain says is illegal, does not take place.
How the 17,000 Catalan regional police respond to this order is regarded as key to the success or failure of the planned vote.
Meanwhile, Catalan farmers on scores of tractors converged on Barcelona Friday, driving slowly along the city’s broad boulevards in a show of support for Sunday’s planned referendum.
The tractors carried the Catalan pro-independence flag, called the “estelada,” to the headquarters of the regional government. Similar tractor protests were held across Catalonia.