A woman holds a carnation towards a Spanish Civil Guard officer outside a polling station for the banned independence referendum in Sant Julia de Ramis, Spain(Photo: REUTERS)
Catalonia's government spokesman says that the disputed independence referendum is underway in 73 percent of about 6,000 polling stations despite a police crackdown to try to halt the vote and technological obstacles.
Jordi Turull called for Catalans to remain calm and patient but to defend "in a civic and peaceful manner" their right to vote after riot police blocked voting in some polling centers and confiscated ballot boxes amid clashes with protesting voters. Police have also fired rubber projectiles at protesters in Barcelona.
Turull said that "the world has seen the violence of the Spanish state," calling actions by the police as "repression that is a reminder of the Franco era" in reference to Spain's dictatorship from 1939-1975.
Turull said the Spanish government's representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo, should resign over the handling of the crackdown.
Spanish riot police have fired rubber projectiles at protesters outside a Barcelona polling station during Catalonia's disputed independence referendum. Several people have been wounded.
The officers fired the projectiles while trying to clear protesters who were trying to impede National Police cars from leaving after police confiscated ballot boxes from the voting center.
An AP photographer witnessed how several people had been injured during the scuffles outside Barcelona's Rius i Taule school, where some voters had cast ballots before police arrived.
Manuel Conedeminas, a 48-year-old IT manager who tried to block police from driving away with the ballot boxes, said agents had kicked them before using their batons and firing the projectiles, which were ball-shaped.
Several members of the Catalan regional government cast their ballots in a banned referendum on independence from Spain that became messy as riot police moved Sunday to halt voting in several polling centers.
Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont voted in Cornella de Terri, near the northern city of Girona, after police took over control of the original polling center where he was due to appear, his spokesman Joan Maria Pique told The Associated Press.
Puigdemont has spearheaded the separatist politicians' push to go ahead with the vote, despite a Constitutional Court suspension and fierce opposition by central authorities.
Regional vice president Oriol Junqueras also found his designated polling station taken over by police and moved to a different location where he eventually voted, regional broadcaster TV3 said.
Electoral volunteers at polling centers in Catalonia's disputed referendum say they are unable to access census data because the website that hosted it is down, while internet service has been cut in some of the stations.
Technicians are working to set up new domains for the website where electoral managers need to register polling data, said Jordi Sole, a 48-year-old historian who displayed an accreditation with the regional government's logo and said that was at the Collaso high school in Barcelona to assist with the voting.
Guillem Castillo, an 18-year-old engineering student designated as an electoral official there, said technical problems halted the voting shortly after it opened.
Spanish media reported similar problems with internet in polling centers across Catalonia.
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