A game of political chess

SEPARATISTS OCCUPY POLLING PLACES IN A POSSIBLE CONFRONTATION WITH POLICE

Authorities and police across Catalonia are playing a complicated game of political chess to either stop or start the independence referendum scheduled for today.

At stake is the future of the 7.5 million Catalans’ place in Spain, with the regional government determined that the plebiscite will go ahead — with a majority giving a mandate to regional leader Carles Puigdemont to declare the region that includes Spain’s secondlargest city of Barcelona independent.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his government in Madrid is taking every legal measure to try and prevent the vote from taking place. Spain’s Constitutional Court has already declared the referendum to be illegal.

Across the city yesterday, small groups of separatists waved yellow and red Catalan flags and chanted “Votarem! Votarem!” — “We will vote! We will vote!” They also shouted “No tinc pour” — “I am not afraid” — a slogan that became popular after the August terrorist attacks in the city and region.

As part of the cat-andmouse game heading up to the polling, where booths are due to open at 9am local time, police occupied the Catalan government’s communications hub.

Elsewhere, separatist supporters occupied some polling places, setting up a possible confrontation with police who have been ordered to clear them out by 6am today to ensure the referendum won’t go ahead.

At one Barcelona school, Hector, a 43-year-old local, said five or six families would be spending the night there.

Authorities say 163 schools that are to be used as polling places have been occupied by separatists, and 1,300 of 2,315 schools in Catalonia have been taken over by police.

Despite the Madrid’s government’s measures, which saw 10 million ballot papers confiscated, 14 people arrested for aiding and abetting the referendum and pro-separatist websites shut down, Puigdemont is confident the vote will go ahead. “Everything is prepared at the more than 2,000 voting points so they have ballot boxes and voting slips, and have everything people need to express their opinion,” he said.

AP People wave Spanish national flags as thousands packed the central Cibeles square to in Madrid, Spain, yesterday.

AP With ‘esteladas’, the pro-independence Catalan flag, on their backs, youngsters attend a closing campaign rally for the ‘Yes’ vote in the independence referendum in Barcelona.

Reuters A woman holds up a joint Catalan and Spanish flag joined together during a demonstration in favour of a unified Spain a day before the banned October 1 referendum.