The violence which marred Catalonia’s independence referendum has dominated the coverage, but the region’s president is confident about what the result means: Catalonia has won the ‘right to an independent state in the form of a Republic,’ he said last night. The outcome of the vote certainly seems convincing at first glance: 90 per cent of Catalans voted to split from Spain on a 42 per cent turnout. But Puigdemont’s many opponents say that the chaotic nature of yesterday’s voting renders the overall result meaningless. According to Catalan authorities, 319 of around 2,300 polling stations across Catalonia were closed by police. In the run-up to the vote, Rajoy’s government seized some 10 million ballot papers, prompting Puigdemont to tell Catalans that they could print off their own ballots at home and vote wherever they liked. Unsurprisingly, this has led some groups – such as the anti-secession organisation Societat Civil – to claim that some voters cast multiple ballot papers.
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