Anecdotes from Spanish election day

The general elections in Spain were held on Sunday with 36,510,952 voters entitled to vote.

Despite a high level of alert over a possible terrorist attack voting continued throughout the day with no major issues, although there were a few anecdotes.

In order to be able to vote in Spain, voters need to present an identity document, usually their National Identity Document (DNI), something the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colou forgot as she turned up to cast her vote.

The media had to wait for around 10 minutes as she looked for the card in her bag, before deciding to show her passport instead. Colau had that document in her bag as she had recently made a trip abroad.

The mayor of Spain's fifth largest city, Zaragoza, Pedro Santisteve was named as the substitute president of a voting table in the city, a duty which normally means turning up at 8 a.m. local time, and being allowed to leave once the president has appeared.

In Santisteve's case this didn't happen as the designated president failed to appear meaning the mayor had to spend the day in the voting station.

The captain of Atletico Madrid football team, Gabi Fernandez had better luck. He had also been named as a substitute on an electoral table and was unable to travel with the rest of his teammates to Malaga on Saturday evening for a vital BBVA Primera Liga league match.

Gabi turned up at his designated polling station at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and was allowed to leave hot-foot to Malaga shortly afterwards after it was confirmed everyone was present and correct.

Meanwhile, the polls closed in the village of Villarroya in the Rioja region of Spain one minute after opening. Villarroya only has six inhabitants and they were all at the polling station at 9 a.m., needing less than 60 seconds to cast their votes before returning home. Endit