[ElPais] Voter turnout at Spain’s national election stood at 53.12% at 6:00 p.m. local time, with two hours left to cast ballots in mainland Spain, reflecting a decrease of almost four points compared to the 2019 polls, when it was 56.85%, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry. This figure does not include postal voting, which this year has reached record numbers, with 2.47 million voters choosing this option. Turnout rose in the regions of Galicia, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, the Canary Islands and Asturias and fell elsewhere, mainly in Catalonia, Madrid and the Basque Country.
With 22,562 polling stations open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. this Sunday, the prospect of a hot day pushed many people to go early. A majority of polling stations lack air conditioning, and they have been equipped with electric fans, portable air conditioning systems and refrigerators containing bottles of water to make the day easier for the citizens who were summoned to man the 60,314 polling tables across the Spanish territory.
With the snap election taking place in the middle of summer, the railway company Renfe enabled shuttle buses on the Madrid-Valencia route after a serious incident in a tunnel interrupted traffic in both directions. The breakdown affected some 4,000 passengers, including many citizens who were going home in order to vote. The main opposition Popular Party (PP) has insinuated that the breakdown may have been due to an alleged boycott by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE). Before this, the PP had suggested that mail-in ballots would experience trouble; instead, there has been a record 2.4 million mail votes. |