"Spain's Constitutional Court has suspended the referendum and the central government says it is illegal. That is all the Spanish Government had to do - no physical action was ever required. Instead Guardia Civil Units were deployed there from other parts of Spain, people were physically prevented from voting, polling stations were stormed and people attacked resulting in horrendous scenes and 888 civilians and 11 police officers injured - small wonder no-one was killed. Catalonia has an electorate of some 5.3 million. Of that number 2.2 million apparently managed to vote yesterday. I assume that that number mainly represents the "hard-core Separatist" element considering the publicity the event provoked in the days leading up to the referendum itself. Of the 2.2 million votes that were cast yesterday 90% voted for independence. That means 1.98 million out of an electorate of 5.3 million voted for independence for Catalonia. The Spanish Government should have made their statement and permitted the non-binding, unconstitutional referendum to go ahead peacefully, denying the electorate nothing. The result, I believe, would have been a resounding NO. The can has just been kicked a little further down the road. There will be a referendum at some point in the future and yesterday's events will have been etched on the minds of many Catalonians who up until yesterday were undecided.
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