All eyes on Catalonia as referendum day arrives
Nisaa FM:- Catalonia's independence referendum has begun in chaotic fashion, with clashes taking place as police attempt to prevent the vote from taking place.
The Spanish government has pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court.
Police officers are preventing people from voting, and seizing ballot papers and boxes at polling stations. Nonetheless, Catalan government officials have predicted a big turnout.
The ballot papers contain just one question: "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?" There are two boxes: Yes or No.
Pressure for a vote on self-determination has grown over the past five years. Catalonia is a wealthy region of 7.5 million people in north-eastern Spain that has its own language and culture. It also has a high degree of autonomy, but is not recognized as a separate nation under the Spanish constitution.
Ahead of the polls opening, the Catalan government said voters could print off their own ballot papers and use any polling station if their designated voting place was shut.
In the town of Girona, riot police smashed their way into a polling station where the region's leader Carles Puigdemont was due to vote.
Television footage showed them breaking the glass of the sports centre's entrance door and forcibly removing those attempting to vote.
Meanwhile, in the regional capital Barcelona, witnesses said police fired rubber projectiles at pro-independence protesters.
Reports say at least two people have been injured during clashes in the city.
Thousands of separatist supporters had occupied schools and other buildings that have been designated as voting centers ahead of the polls opening.
Many of those inside were parents and their children, who remained in the buildings after the end of lessons on Friday and bedded down in sleeping bags on gym mats.
In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off.
But police insisted polling stations would not be allowed to open, and that those inside would be evicted.
Referendum organizers have called for peaceful resistance to any police action.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/