Spanish police seal off Catalan polling stations

More than half of schools earmarked as polling stations for a banned referendum on Catalonia’s breakaway from Spain have been sealed off by the police.

Separatists in the northeastern region on Friday evening and Saturday morning started occupying voting stations in a bid to ensure Sunday’s poll, which has been declared illegal by Spanish authorities, goes ahead.

The central government in Madrid said on Saturday that 1,300 of 2,315 designated voting stations have been sealed off by police, who have been mobilised in the thousands in the region.

Teachers, parents, students and activists in the region have leapt into action to defend the vote, defying Madrid’s warnings of repercussions by occupying more than 160 schools designated as polling stations.

Enric Millo, the central government representative in Catalonia, told reporters 1,300 polling stations had already been sealed off.

He said that 163 of those had already been occupied when they were sealed off, which meant those inside were allowed to leave but no one could go in

Catalonia is a wealthy region within Spain that accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s economy. It has its own language, which is taught in schools and universally spoken.

Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to attempt to vote in a ballot that will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain’s Constitutional Court and Madrid for being at odds with the 1978 constitution.

“Citizens and families here have been getting together and organising defence committees. They know that those schools have become key battlegrounds in Catalonia’s political struggle,” said Al Jazeera’s Karl Penhaul, who is in Barcelona, capital of Catalonia.

Speaking from a central Barcelona school, where adults and children slept in sleeping bags on gym mats, a separatist supporter who identified herself only as Giselle said: “We slept and waited for them (police) so that they would not try to evict us or tell us what they wanted.

“They came once and they were very polite. We told them we were inside and in peace,” she told Reuters news agency.

Police have been ordered not to use force, but to vacate the schools by 6am (04:00 GMT) on Sunday, ahead of the scheduled opening of polls at 9am (07:00 GMT).

Millo said anyone remaining in schools after 6am will need to be removed in line with a judge’s orders, but predicts there won’t be significant problems.

“I trust in the common sense of Catalans and that people will operate with prudence,” he said.

The Catalan regional government said police had also occupied its communications hub and would remain there for two days after Catalonia’s high court ordered police to prevent electronic voting and instructed Google to delete an application it said was being used to spread information on the vote.