MADRID: Spaniards were voting on Sunday in local and regional polls seen as a barometer for a year-end general election which surveys suggest Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will lose, heralding a return of the right.
The stakes are high for Sanchez, whose Socialist party governs the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy in coalition with the far-left Podemos.
Voters are casting ballots for mayors in 8,131 municipalities while also electing leaders and assemblies in 12 of Spain’s 17 regions — 10 of which are currently run by the Socialists.
In an update at 2:00 pm, five hours into voting, participation in the local elections stood at 36.54 per cent, or 1.59 percentage points higher than in the 2019 polls, official figures showed.
Some 35.5 million people are voting in the local elections while 18.3 million are eligible to cast ballots in the regional polls.
Balloting ends at 8:00 pm, with initial results due out two hours later.
Sanchez has been in office since 2018, and Sunday’s elections find him facing several obstacles: voter fatigue with his left-wing government, soaring inflation and falling purchasing power.
“I do think it’s an important test. It’s the only way we have of expressing our opinion about all these years they’ve been in government,” 61-year-old doctor Maria Alonso said after voting in Madrid, without saying who earned her vote.
Microbiologist Irene Diaz said the local and regional polls “were as important” as the upcoming general election.
Sanchez expressed confidence that voters would cast their ballots responsibly.
“Most of our citizens will vote positively... for what is important: for public healthcare, public education and housing policies for our young people,” he said after voting in Madrid. — AFP
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