Today was voting day in the Catalan elections – for the Catalan parliament. I don’t have a vote but went along to see what happens at the voting station. It was a beautiful autumn day

The streets were empty because it was a Sunday perhaps to make sure more people are free to vote and also no need to close schools for the day. ( I know that is part of the fun in the UK but here there are already so many days of fiesta)
I am just beginning to get my head round the political parties – they all have very long names which end up being acronymised. CiU  PSC ERC PPC and the lengthy ICV- EUiA and many more smaller ones.
The streets have been festooned with posters of the leaders and their slogans.

 At the polling station there is a long table with all the possible parties to vote for.
Each paper lists the candidates for one party only.The voter takes a list – only one – and puts it in an envelope then drops that in a box. You vote for a party – the list names all the candidates in one party and the ones at the top are the leaders who will definitely get elected.

At the moment it looks like CiU have won the most votes but without a majority. So they can decide to govern an a minority or form an alliance. Artur Mas will be president and so I’ll be seeing a lot more of him on TV. Sorry there is no photo – I don’t know what happened to it as I’m sure I took one.
There are 3 possible coalition partners. Thanks to this web site for helping me understand it all a bit better – in English. Now to watch the discussion about coalitions – that will be a good way to learn more. Here there are so many levels of connection and separation – there is the question of independence as well as the obvious differences between left and right.