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1st LD: Second advance points to increase in voter turnout in Spanish election

Xinhua, December 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

The second breakdown of voting numbers in this Sunday's Spanish general election showed that 20,148,372 people (58.37 percent of the electorate) had cast their votes in the first nine hours of polling in the Spanish general election.

At the same time in the November 2011 general elections 19,772,970 votes had been cast (57.65 percent) in the election which was won by Mariano Rajoy's Peoples Party.

It also shows a significant rise in voter numbers during Sunday afternoon after the first advance the ministry had given at 14:30 (1330 GMT) shown that 11,908,985 (36.92 percent of the electorate) had cast their votes, below the comparative November 2011 figure of 12,990,129 (37.88 percent).

The Secretary of State for Communication Carmen Martinez Castro and Under-Secretary for the Interior Luis Aguilera announced the news at 18:30, with one and a half hours remaining until the polls close at 20:00 on the most interesting election in Spain's recent history.

This election sees four parties, the ruling People's Party (PP), the Socialist (PSOE) Party and the new formations, the left wing Podemos and center-right Citizens compete in the most open election in Spanish history, which opinion polls predict will be won by the PP, but without enough seats to retain their majority in congress.

Castro and Aguilera commented that on the whole the voting had passed without any major incidents.

Spaniards are called to vote for 350 deputies in the Spanish Congress and 208 members in the Senate.

The first results are expected at around 22:30, but Spanish TV will publish an extensive exit poll based on the results of interviews with 177,000 voters almost as soon as the polling stations close. Endit