Election Day 10-N: Voter Turnout Down By Nearly Four Points

By Cristina Hodgson • Published: 10 Nov 2019 • 20:06

DATA as at 6pm show that voter turnout is down nearly four points compared to the same time at the April 28 general election: 56.8% compared to 60.7%.

But an even bigger fall is evident in the number of postal votes, which are down around 30% compared to the April polls.

Since 2017, Spanish politics has been defined by a lack of parliamentary majorities and the inability of politicians to reach governing deals. Surveys suggest that the outcome of today’s vote will be an even more fractured lower house, with less of a difference between the left- and right-wing blocs. The far right is also expected to make significant gains.

The results of the vote will be known at around 10.30pm, when the acting government spokeswoman, Isabel Celaá, and the acting interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska are scheduled to give a news conference at the data control center in Madrid. The vote count will begin at 8pm.

Incidents that have taken place thus far during election day:

Two people die from natural causes just after voting. A woman has died in Granada in an electoral college and another person has died in Guipúzcoa, both from natural causes and just after voting.
A man has been arrested at a voting station in Tarragona in possession of a pistol and a knife. The local police in Amposta detained the 70-year-old, who reportedly does not have a criminal record and did not engage in any violent behavior. “He is currently under arrest and now we will have to find out where he got the firearm from and what he was planning to do,” the mayor of Amposta, Adam Tomas, has stated.
The president of a voting station in Ourense turned up late for his duties today – because his dog had apparently eaten his national identity card (DNI). In the end, the polling booth he was supposed to be manning was taken over by a stand-in. (EFE)
Shortly after 11:00 a.m. Star Wars fans entered the Juan Ramón Jiménez school in Seville to cast their vote disguised as the characters of the films created by George Lucas.