In line with the decision taken by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish elections began, in which 350 deputies and 208 senators will be elected.
The voting process, which starts at 09:00 local time, takes place in 210 thousand ballot boxes at 60 thousand election desks set up in 22 thousand 522 schools.
A total of 37.4 million voters, 2.3 million of whom are abroad, are registered for the elections with a total cost of 220.87 million.
The elections, which coincided with the summer period for the second time in the country’s democracy history, became the subject of polemics due to the extreme heat, while fans were placed at the desks of polling stations in many schools and a large amount of water was taken in plastic bottles.
According to the data of the Ministry of Interior, more than 90 thousand police and gendarmerie are on duty in the elections.
RECORD BROKEN
On the other hand, with the effect of the holiday period and the extreme heat, approximately 2.6 million Spaniards used the game by mail. The number of people who cast their votes by mail, which has doubled compared to the last elections, has been recorded as a “record”.
The Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), which has been in power in Spain since January 2020 and has the distinction of being the first coalition government in the country’s democracy history, and the extreme left-wing Unidas Podemos parties, rule the country with their parliamentary minority.
Polls show that the main opposition right-wing People’s Party (PP) will emerge as the first party in the elections, but will be forced to form a coalition government with the far-right Vox party as it will not win the parliamentary majority. If this possibility occurs, a far-right party will come to power for the first time in Spain after the dictator Franco era.
Voting will end at 8:00 PM local time across the country, while polling stations in the southern Canary Islands will be closed one hour late due to the time difference. (AA)