SPAIN: Spaniards cast their vote in general elections

Record ID: 809618

  • Title: SPAIN: Spaniards cast their vote in general elections
  • Date: 9th March 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MARCH 11TH BOMBING VICTIM, ANGELES DOMINGUEZ, VOTING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARCH 11TH BOMBING VICTIM, ANGELES DOMINGUEZ, VOTING: "Let's see if we have more possibilities so that we don't talk with the terrorists. In these four years there has been plenty of dialogue and I think what they have wanted with the assassination, that in my view is just another person, is to manipulate the elections."
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9C42MVSME7SVPXLG8VR57Y38T
  • Story Text: Early indication of low turnout points to a possible close election result in Spanish general elections.
    Voting got under way in Spain's general election on Sunday (March 9), a ballot expected to return the ruling Socialists to power, though again short of an absolute majority after a tough campaign focused on a flagging economy.
    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero cast his vote on Sunday in the country's ninth parliamentary elections since the 1978 Constitution was approved.
    "Spain is stronger if democracy is stronger. And democracy is stronger if all citizens vote. To exercise that right which enables us to decide the future of the country. Which makes us free and sovereign. I hope that there will be wide participation, a democracy in an exemplary country such as Spain," said Zapatero after voting.
    As Zapatero left a crowd gathered outside the Madrid polling station heckled and booed the Prime Minister who is seeking a second term in government.
    Four years ago, then opposition leader Zapatero came from behind to win power on a wave of voter anger at the ruling Popular Party (PP), who tried to blame the ETA Basque separatists for election-eve bomb attacks by Islamic militants.
    Popular Party candidate, Mariano Rajoy, cast his vote to applause from supporters.
    "The only think I can desire at this moment is for things to develop the way they need to develop. That the only news is that the elections have taken place and the winner is who the citizens of Spain wanted. That´s what I desire," he said after casting his ballot.
    Worries over soaring immigration were one of the top issues of the campaign.
    Many are unsettled by an unprecedented influx of more than 3 million registered immigrants in the last eight years -- most of them from Morocco, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
    On Sunday, many immigrants cast their vote for the first time.
    "It a sensation of contributing to electing a president and a government. It is a special sensation that has no explanation," said Luis Silva, an immigrant from Angola.
    The killing of a former Socialist councillor in the Basque Country on Friday (March 07), which all major parties blamed on ETA, has again cast a pall over a Spanish election.
    But political commentators say this time around, the attack is unlikely to radically change the outcome.
    "Let's see if we have more possibilities so that we don't talk with the terrorists. In these four years there has been plenty of dialogue and I think what they have wanted with the assassination, that in my view is just another person, is to manipulate the elections," said Angeles Dominguez, a victim of the March 11th bombings.
    Polling booths opened at 0800 GMT and an early indication of low turnout pointed to a possible close election result.
    Opinion polls published on Monday -- the last day before a pre-election moratorium -- showed the Socialists on 43.4 to 43.9 percent and Mariano Rajoy's PP at between 39.3 and 39.5 percent.
    Analysts say a turnout of less than 75 percent would harm the Socialists, and that a turnout below 70 percent could even tip the scales towards a conservative victory.
    The PP has openly acknowledged that it is trying to get left-wing voters to abstain.
    In any case, neither big party is likely to be able to govern without some form of support from regional or leftist parties, with whom the Socialists have made ad hoc alliances over the last four years.
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