The Scotsman

Votes on Catalan independen­ce

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queue of people already gathered to vote. The polls opened in a very orderly way at 9am and people started to vote, but very quickly problems emerged with the computeris­ed verificati­on system that the Catalonian government had put in place. It seems the Spanish government has blocked the system. There was a manual back-up, but that was causing delays.

“We left Barcelona and went to a small town near Montserrat, and there were huge queues of people waiting to vote, many of them who had been in the school overnight.

“There were some Catalonian police there, but they were standing back. They said they had been in, told people to stop, but people continued and they left it at that.

“Rumours were circulatin­g that the Spanish Guardia Civil were on their way, and there was a palpable sense of fear in the room. This was about lunchtime, and people were starting to see the photograph­s on Twitter from Barcelona.

“We then went to a smaller town, Sant Andreu de la Barca, to a health centre, and when we arrived the Guardia Civil had just left. They had broken down the door of the health centre and attacked people with batons. There were a lot of older people crying … We spoke to a local councillor who said that when the Guardia Civil came to take the ballot boxes, he asked them for a warrant, and they just pushed him out of the way.”

Ms Cherry said she was speaking from another town, where polling had taken place in a school opposite a Guardia Civil building.

“When we went in, they had decided to close the polling station early and smuggled the ballot boxes out the back door, but they asked us to stay because they believed that the Guardia Civil weren’t attacking because internatio­nal observers were there.

“The older generation are very upset, because they’re reminded of Franco and the fascist state they were born Hundreds of activists waved Catalan flags and chanted pro-independen­ce slogans as they marched in the West End of Edinburgh in support of the Spanish region’s controvers­ial referendum yesterday.

Demonstrat­ors came from across the country to join in with the protests against the Spanish government outside the European Commission office on Alva Street.

City resident Monica Chamorro, 37, originally from Girona, just north of Barcelona, said she was “appalled” at the actions of the Spanish government, adding: “This morning I was just crying, people are going to vote and they are met with force. We will accept the vote for yes, we will accept the vote for no, but we have to have the right to cast our vote.

“We came to show our support, to show that we want democracy.”

Andrew Mccourt, 45, travelled from Wishaw to join the protests and described the situation in Catalonia as “ridiculous”.

He said: “There’s a swell of support here from Scotland towards Catalonia, because what’s happening there is just disgusting. It just goes to show Spain rules with an iron fist. The Catalans deserve their right to choose and we support that right.” into, that they lived in and they thought had gone away forever, and it’s come back.”

Ms Cherry said votes were being counted in polling stations to avoid gathering ballot boxes in a central location where they could be seized.

“The overall impression is that people are absolutely determined to vote, clapping and singing and punching the air, shouting ‘votarem’, which means ‘we will vote’.

“The overwhelmi­ng thing that people say they want is for the European Union to say something. They are desperate for the EU to condemn Spain.”

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