Despite being ruled as illegal by Spain, more than two million Catalonia's voters turned out on Sunday to participate in an informal vote on whether the wealthy northeastern region should secede from the rest of Spain, Catalonia's government said.
The verdict turned out to be an overwhelming majority of more than 80 percent in favor of secession, Vice President Joana Ortega said.
On Tuesday, Spain's Constitutional Court had ordered the suspension of the unconstitutional poll after agreeing to hear the Spanish government's challenge against it, BBC News reported. But since the regional Catalan government pushed forward with the non-binding vote across the region in north-eastern Spain, regional officials attempted to close down the polling stations early in order shield those organizing the disputed poll from punishment.
With more than 40,000 volunteers manning the polling stations across the region, participation at 6 p.m. had already surpassed over 1.8 million of the 5.4 million eligible voters that had come to cast their ballot.
Specifically, the ballot questioned whether Catalonia should be a state, and if so, should it be independent, according to Bloomberg News.
"Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and vote," regional president Artur Mas said after depositing his ballot at a school in Barcelona. He hailed the non-binding poll "a great success" that should pave the way for a formal referendum.
"We have earned the right to a referendum," he told cheering supporters. "Once again Catalonia has shown that it wants to rule itself."
However, Spanish Justice Minister Rafael Catala dismissed the poll as "fruitless and useless."
"The government considers this to be a day of political propaganda organized by pro-independence forces and devoid of any kind of democratic validity," he said in a statement.
But despite uncertainty on whether anticipated regional elections will likely stand-in for a referendum on Catalonia's independence, hundreds lined up in front of another school in Barcelona on Sunday, with some wearing pro-independence regalia, the Associated Press reported.
"I voted for independence because I've always felt very Catalan," said Nuria Silvestre, a 44-year-old teacher. "Maybe I wasn't so radical before, but the fact that they are prohibiting (the vote) from Madrid has made me."
According to opinion polls conducted earlier, the majority of Catalonia's 7.5 million inhabitants, as many as 80 percent, want an official referendum on independence, while around half support breaking centuries-old ties with Spain.
Meanwhile, Catalonia's push for independence comes two months after the Scots voted to remain in the United Kingdom.
On late Saturday, Spanish state prosecutors announced that they were opening an investigation to determine if by holding the informal vote in defiance of the court's suspension, the Catalan government has broken the law. Additionally, Spanish unionist parties argued that because the ballot was organized by grassroots pro-independence groups, it could not legitimately reflect the wishes of the region, according to BBC News.
Since the past three years, nationalism in Catalonia has been fueled by economic and cultural grievances, setting of hundreds of thousands of pro-independence rallies. The wealthy region of 7.5 million people contributes more to the Spanish economy than it gets back through central government funds, the AP reported
