Central-right Ciudadanos and left ERC to win most votes in Catalan elections: poll

MADRID, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- A poll published on Monday showed that the center-right party Ciudadanos will win the most votes of the Catalan regional election scheduled for Dec. 21, while the left-wing pro-Catalan independence party Ezquerra Republicana (ERC) is to closely follow.

The poll which is published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS) predicts Ciudadanos to win 22.5 percent of the votes, while Oriol Junqueras' ERC claiming 20.8 percent.

The CIS expects that pro-Catalan independence parties will see their overall share of the vote to fall from 48 to 44.4 percent and thus will lose the majority they won in September 2016.

Meanwhile in the pro-Constitutional bloc, the Socialist Party would have 21 seats with 16 percent of the votes, while the People's Party is predicted to suffer an electoral humiliation, gaining just seven seats, or 5.8 percent of the votes.

Left wing En Comun-Podem is predicted to have nine seats after winning 8.6 percent of the votes. But it remains unknown whether they would support a regional government containing the PP and Ciudadanos.

The poll was published hours after a Spanish Supreme Court judge rejected the appeal of Junqueras and three other former Catalan separatist officials to be granted bail. Enditem