Catalan parties make final appeals to undecided voters

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Party leaders and politicians made last-ditch appeals to undecided voters in Spain’s Catalonia region Tuesday ahead of an election that polls indicate could be a close race between supporters of secession and political rivals who want to remain part of the country.

With opinion polls suggesting that more than 20 percent of the region’s 5.5 million-strong electorate were undecided about who to support in Thursday’s election, the final campaign rallies set out clear battle lines.

Ciutadans (Citizens) party leader Ines Arrimadas, the leading regional presidential candidate opposing independence, said she would bury the region’s secession ambitions if she wins Thursday’s election.

“On Thursday, we are going to awaken from this nightmare of the independence push,” Arrimadas, a 34-year-old lawyer, told a crowd of supporters.

Former regional President Carles Puigdemont, the ousted separatist leader evading Spanish justice in Brussels, vowed to return to Catalonia if he’s re-elected. He depicted the vote as a showdown with Spain’s conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who removed Puigdemont’s government from office to block Catalan independence.

“This time is not about who wins this election, it’s about whether the country wins or Rajoy does,” Puigdemont said in a video address streamed live from the Belgian capital to supporters back home.

The contest is being held in exceptional circumstances. The Spanish government called the election when it seized control of Catalonia, dismissed its government and dissolved the regional parliament following a declaration of independence by separatist lawmakers there Oct. 27. It then called Thursday’s vote.

Several members of the ousted Cabinet, including Puigdemont, campaigned from Brussels, where they sought refuge from Spanish justice. Others are in jail in Spain on provisional rebellion charges.

Marta Rovira, the No. 2 candidate for the left-wing republican ERC party in Catalonia, said her goal is to breathe fresh life into the region’s secession bid. The ERC is roughly level with Ciutadans in topping pre-election opinion polls.

“Our feeling is that the democratic mandate that we can obtain on Dec. 21 will be a democratic mandate,” Rovira said. “Because these are elections called by the Spanish government, and they won’t be able to deny this democratic mandate. They will have to accept it.”