Clashes between voters, police amid controversial independence vote

MADRID - 1 October 2017: As the polls opened across Catalonia Sunday morning, clashes erupted between voters and Spanish police in several locations when the latter started to confiscate voting slips and ballot boxes, Sky news reported.

Thousands of Catalans spent the night in the schools that are being used as polling booths for the vote, which has been declared illegal by the Spanish government. The organizers at a voting station in Barcelona instructed the voters who gathered outside the school to passively resist when the police arrive. The Spanish government announced that most of the schools have been shut down and that the police will evacuate anyone who tries to vote.

Although Spain’s highest court labeled the referendum as unconstitutional, the leaders of the Catalan independence movement announced earlier today that the vote would proceed as planned and called on the millions of eligible voters to head to the polls.

Catalonia is a region in Spain that is rich in its own culture and language. It is responsible for about 20 percent of the country’s economy.