Cataluña to ‘declare independence’ after 90 per cent vote in favour

CATALAN authorities have announced a landslide ‘yes’ vote in Sunday’s illegal referendum.

Spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters that 90 per cent of 2.26 million votes counted were in favour of independence.

Around 8 per cent voted ‘no,’ while the remainder were blank or void, with 15,000 still to be counted.

He confirmed that the figure does not include the ballots seized during a series of violent raids by Spanish police, with 844 members of the public and 33 officers injured according to a new statement by the regional health department.

The preliminary poll result comes in the wake of a defiant televised speech by Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who declared his intention to declare independence “in the next few days” once the results are confirmed.

“My government, in the next few days, will send the results of [the] vote to the Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people lies, so that it can act in accordance with the law of the referendum,” he said.

“On this day of hope and suffering, Cataluña’s citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic.”

He also referred to the police violence as “a clear violation of human rights.”

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had earlier said that no referendum had taken place during his own TV broadcast after polling stations closed.

#ÚltimaHora ? Puigdemont anuncia que trasladará los resultados del 1-O al Parlament https://t.co/XpmdwS72My pic.twitter.com/sI68p9EgvR

— EL MUNDO (@elmundoes) October 1, 2017