Police immediately moved to clamp down on attempts to vote in the banned Catalonia independence referendum as soon as it began, as the province defies an order not to go ahead with it.
The referendum, declared illegal by Spain’s central government, has thrown the country into its worst constitutional crisis in decades and raised fears of street violence as a test of will between Madrid and Barcelona plays out.
Hopes the day could pass with violence were dashed almost immediately.
In the village of Sant Julia De Ramis, where Catalonia President Carles Puigdemont was expected to vote, police gathered to prevent people voting. Shortly after 9am when polls were meant to open, they were already clashing with voters.
Puigdemont later cast his vote at a station in Barcelona instead.
Organisers smuggled ballot boxes into some stations before dawn in black plastic bags.
Later, voters blocked doors at some sites in anticipation that police could try to enter and take over the stations. At one, a Barcelona school, organizers asked people to use passive resistance if police intervened.
“I have got up early because my country needs me,” said Eulalia Espinal, a 65-year-old pensioner who started queuing with around 100 others outside one polling station, a Barcelona school, in rain at about 5am.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen but we have to be here,” she said.
Leading up to the referendum, Spanish police arrested Catalan officials, seized campaigning leaflets, sealed off many of the 2,300 schools designated as polling stations and occupied the Catalan government’s communications hub.
Families have occupied scores of schools earmarked as voting centers, sleeping overnight in an attempt to prevent police from sealing them off.
“If I can’t vote, I want to turn out in the streets and say sincerely that we want to vote,” said independence supporter Jose Miro, a 60-year-old schools inspector.
Puigdemont originally said that if the Yes vote won, the Catalan government would declare independence within 48 hours, but regional leaders have since acknowledged Madrid’s crackdown has undermined the vote.
Footage on social media appeared to show police removing ballot boxes in Barcelona, while people held their fists aloft and sang in defiance.
The ballot will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain’s Constitutional Court, and Madrid has the ultimate power to suspend the regional government’s authority to rule if it declares independence.
The Madrid government, which has sent thousands of police to Catalonia to enforce a court ban on the vote, believes it has done enough to prevent any meaningful referendum taking place.
Farmers have used tractors to guard polling stations in 30 Catalan towns, according to Spanish media reports.
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