Catalan Regional Vote Postponed Over Virus

Barcelona, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jan, 2021 ) :Regional elections in Spain's Catalonia which were to take place next month have been postponed due to the pandemic, the ruling separatist parties said Friday.

The polls, which were scheduled for February 14, will now take place on May 30.

"The most prudent thing is to postpone these elections," said Elsa Artadi, spokeswoman for "Together for Catalonia", one of two separatist parties which govern the region.

The regional elections, Catalonia's fifth in 10 years, are being held a year early after the region's separatist leader Quim Torra was barred by the courts from holding public office.

He was ruled unfit to hold public office for 18 months after refusing to remove separatist symbols from public buildings during a general election campaign in April 2019 despite orders from Spain's electoral committee.

But the move was opposed by the Socialist Party of Catalonia, the regional branch of the party which governs Spain in a leftwing coalition.

The party has risen in the polls since Health Minister Salvador Illa, the face of Spain's battle against the virus, announced last month he would run as a candidate.

Some polls put the Socialists in the lead, ahead of "Together for Catalonia" and the leftist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), the other ruling separatist party.

The two parties have been deeply divided over strategy since the wealthy northeastern region staged a failed bid for independence in 2017 which plunged Spain its worst political crisis in decades.

The ERC has since moderated its stance, becoming a key source of tacit support in the national parliament for Sanchez's minority government, helping to pass his 2021 budget and other bills.