VOTING turnout today (Sunday) for Spain's repeat general election has been 7% lower than in December, although a massive rise in postal votes has been seen.
A total of 1.3 million Spaniards have voted by post – an increase of 86.5% on that of six months ago – but votes in person have gone down, sitting at 51.21% as at 18.30hrs.
December's elections saw one of the lowest-ever participations with just 58.22% Spaniards casting their ballot – but the re-run has seen it decline even further.
Polling stations will remain open until 20.00hrs.
By late lunchtime today, fewer than the national average of 36.8% had voted in six regions, plus the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla – these two registered a participation of 24.9% and 21.8% respectively by 14.00hrs.
And the Basque Country (36%), Asturias (34.7%), Balearic Islands (34.4%), Galicia, (34%), Catalunya (32.3%) and Canary Islands (28.3%) were all way below the average – although the polling stations in the Canary Islands opened an hour later than the rest of the country because of being in a different time zone.
Valencia is the region which has so far seen the highest participation at 43.3%, and here and La Rioja (40.9%) were the only ones where more than four in 10 eligible voters had turned out by 14.00hrs.
Still above the national average but lower than 40% were Murcia (39.9%), Extremadura (39.4%), Cantabria (39.2%), Madrid (39.02%), Castilla-La Mancha (38.9%), Navarra (38%), Andalucía (37.6%), and Castilla y León (37.1%).
Andalucía, Extremadura and the two Castillas are the regions where voting participation has increased the most since the first and unsuccessful election in December.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com