Spain's Catalan president calls region's elections for Sept. 27

The President of Spain's Catalonia Artur Mas announced on Wednesday that he was calling elections for the region for September 27.

Mas made the announcement after a meeting of almost five hours with Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Republican Left (ERC) a party which shares the pro-independence ideology of his own Convergence and Union (CiU).

The decision to bring forward elections for the Catalan region ends a period of negotiations and debate between Mas and Junqueras which began with the celebration of the unofficial independence vote in the region on November 9, which saw 2,305,290 people (around 40 percent of the total electorate) participate.

It had been speculated that CiU and ERC would present a joint list of candidates to effectively turn the election into a pro-independence plebiscite, but this will not be the case, with Mas explaining there would be "different electoral lists," all be it with a "common route map".

"After an initial time of uncertainty, discussion and disappointment, which was difficult, we have reached a pact to guarantee the renewal of the political process," said Mas, who confirmed that the election campaign will start on the symbolic date of that Catalan national day, or 'Diada' on September 11th.

Mas' decision means Catalans face three visits to the polls in 2015: the first visit will be on the last Sunday of May for local elections, the second on September 27 and the third and final vote will be in the Spanish general election, which will presumably be held in late November. Endit