Despite the rain and the police sent by the Madrid government, hundreds gathered at polling stations in Barcelona, lining up to vote in the referendum on Catalonia's independence. According to the local press, pro-independence activists spent the night guarding the polling stations which should open at 9, even though the Guardia Civil has barred the entrances. In some areas of the city, open-air banquets have been set up to allow for voting.
The ballot boxes and ballot papers for the independence referendum in Catalonia have arrived in some polling stations manned by pro-independence activists. The arrival of the electoral material is greeted by applause and shouts: “We will vote! We will vote!”.
“If the electoral materials have arrived at your polling station, do not spread the news. We don't give leads,” advises a tweet from the organizers' account.
Esquadra Mossos agents are monitoring several polling stations in Catalonia. According to local media and testimonies on social networks, the Catalan police have not yet seized the electoral material - as the Spanish prosecutor had ordered them - limiting themselves to counting the people present and carrying out security checks, and then leaving, in some cases among the applause of the citizens who preside over the polling stations in view of the opening of the polls.
The pro-independence organizations of civil society, ANC and Omnium, and of the 'Open Schools' platform are launching an appeal to Catalans to go to their polling stations tomorrow morning at 5 and given instructions on how to behave: if they find the polling station closed, they will have to besiege the entrances until they are opened, and in the presence of the police implement "peaceful resistance". La Vanguardia reports it. The organizations have also asked to bring fruit and food to those who will spend the night in the polling stations.
