Election day in Galicia began this Sunday at 9 a.m. normally and without incident. The 3,951 tables of the 2,346 polling stations in Galicia have been established in the first hour of opening of the polling stations. According to that record, the last one to be established was one of the 372 tables in Vigo.
The General Director of Emergencies and Interior, Santiago Villanueva, has confirmed one hundred percent of the tables constituted for a total electoral census of 2,217,089 people.
In addition to the 2.2 million voters registered in Galicia, another 476,544 must be added registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA), which brings the total electoral roll to 2,693,633.
The earliest province was Lugo, since in just ten minutes it had set up all the tables. Before 9:30 a.m. Orense had also done it. In the province of A Coruña there are two tables left to be established and in Pontevedra four to reach one hundred percent of the tables.
The BNG candidate for the presidency of the Xunta, Ana Pontón, has called for “massive participation” and has encouraged Galicians to come to vote with “excitement and hope” on a day in which Galicia “can make history”.
This was declared to the media around 9:30 a.m. after going to vote at the CGAC and she was the earliest candidate to exercise her right to vote.
“I voted with great enthusiasm, with great hope and I know that today there are thousands of Galicians who share that enthusiasm and hope with me and who will go to vote to build the Galicia that they want and dream of,” he noted.
On this day, Pontón added, Galicia “can make history” and that depends on what citizens decide with their vote, which is why he encouraged “massive participation” as the community “plays” the present and the future.
The next to vote was the PSdeG-PSOE candidate, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, in the CEIP Rosalía de Castro (Lugo). “The socialist party has carried out such a proactive campaign (…) Today we encourage everyone to go out and vote to decide the future of Galicia. So that Galicia moves forward.”
A few minutes later, the popular candidate, Alfonso Rueda, did so, casting his vote at a polling station in Pontevedra. “I spoke last night last night. We both have very positive feelings (…) He is going to follow her in Madrid and I will follow her at the Santiago headquarters,” Rueda commented, before the microphones of journalists, about his conversation with the president of the PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo.
Sumar’s candidate for the presidency of the Xunta, Marta Lois, came this Sunday to vote “with enthusiasm” and with the confidence that “today is going to be a very special day.”
Lois voted at the IES Antón Fraguas, in Santiago de Compostela, a few minutes before 12 noon. Like the rest of the candidates, Lois has also called for people to go vote. “I want to call for democratic participation (…) May the ballot boxes be filled with ballots today, may it truly be the day of democracy.”
He has stressed the importance of the vote since, he said, Galicians have this February 18 “the opportunity to choose the future of our country.”
Lois left her position as Sumar’s parliamentary spokesperson in Congress to run as a candidate for the Xunta in these elections, but known polls do not guarantee her access to the Galician Parliament.
On the other hand, Isabel Faraldo, Podemos candidate, has exercised her right to vote at the Sagrada Familia social center in A Coruña, and has encouraged all Galicians to vote because “change is possible.” “We have done our best in a very difficult scenario and we have said those things that no one dares to say,” said Faraldo.
