Voting underway for Spain’s local elections

Madrid, May 28 (EFE).- Polling stations in Spain opened on Sunday for local elections as prime minister Pedro Sanchez called on citizens to vote “positively” and ignore the “intolerance” that a minority of voters back.

Some 35,522,806 citizens have been called to the polls for municipal and regional elections as stations opened with no incidents reported.

“In all democracies, elections are very important,” Sanchez told reporters after voting in his local polling station. “And these are even more important because we are electing municipal governments for the next four years for over 8,000 municipalities from 12 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities.”

Sanchez urged voters in Spain to “forget this intolerance, this noise, this lack of respect and tension that just a minority of voters are trying to establish.”

“The majority of the citizens, I am convinced, will vote positively, with respect, with reflection and above all voting for what is important,” Sanchez added before listing policies voters should be backing including public housing, education and health care.

Voting also went underway with normality in Melilla where earlier this week a probe into an alleged postal vote-buying scheme was unveiled by the authorities. EFE

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