Catalans were defying rain and police orders to leave designated polling stations Sunday ahead of a banned referendum on the region’s secession that has challenged Spain’s political and institutional order.

The country’s Constitutional Court has suspended the vote, and the Spanish central government says it’s illegal. Regional separatist leaders have pledged to hold it anyway and ballot boxes have begun arriving at polling stations. Catalonia is home to 5.3 million eligible voters.

Voters line up before dawn

Defiant crowds gathered before dawn Sunday in Barcelona and towns across Catalonia at schools and some of the other 2,315 facilities designated as polling stations. They were joining parents, children and activists who occupied the buildings over the weekend to make sure that polls open at 9 a.m. (0700GMT) Sunday.

It was unclear how many of the polling stations would be able to open, if any at all. The Ministry of Interior didn’t provide a number late Saturday when it said that most of them had been sealed off and that only some remained occupied.

Police have received orders to avoid the use of force and only have been warning people to vacate the facilities. They are also supposed to confiscate ballots and ballot boxes.

Activist Augsti Gil said there were no ballots or ballot boxes early Sunday at Barcelona’s Joan Fuster high school, where hundreds have gathered ahead of the vote, but he expected them to arrive by the time polls opened.

Tensions on the rise

Tension has been on the rise since the vote was called in early September, crystalizing years of defiance by separatists in the affluent region, which contributes a fifth of Spain’s 1.1 trillion-euro economy ($1.32 trillion.)

Spain’s 2008-2013 financial crisis and harsh austerity measures fueled frustration in Catalonia for setbacks in efforts to gain greater autonomy, with many Catalans feeling they could do better on their own. 

Spain cracks down

Courts and police have been cracking down for days to halt the vote, confiscating 10 million paper ballots and arresting key officials involved in the preparations. On Saturday, Civil Guard agents dismantled the technology to connect voting stations, count the votes and vote online, leading the Spanish government to announce that holding the referendum would be impossible.

Joaquim Bosch, a 73 year-old retiree at Princep de Viana high school, where a crowd of 20 people was growing Sunday morning, said he was uneasy about a possible police response to the crowds.

“I have come to vote to defend the rights of my country, which is Catalonia,” Bosch said. “I vote because of the mistreatment of Catalonia by Spain for many years.” 

On Saturday, Spain’s foreign minister dismissed the planned vote as anti-democratic, saying it runs “counter to the goals and ideals” of the European Union.

“What they are pushing is not democracy. It is a mockery of democracy, a travesty of democracy,” Alfonso Dastis told The Associated Press in an interview.

​Protests across Catalonia, Spain

Dozens of protests have been taking place in Catalonia and across Spain, some to condemn the crackdown on the vote and others supporting the nation’s unity against the independence bid.

No minimum turnout has been set for the validity of the vote by Catalan authorities. Regional government officials initially hoped for a turnout greater than the 2.3 million people who voted in a mock referendum in 2014 in which 80 percent favored independence but have recently signaled that they would consider the vote valid with a lower number given the challenges to hold it.

Separatist Catalan leaders have pledged to declare independence from Spain within 48 hours of Sunday’s vote if the ‘yes’ side wins.
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