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Spanish election: results due in tightest race in years – live updates Spanish election: Conservatives win but fall short of majority, exit polls show – live updates
(35 minutes later)
7.18pm GMT19:18
My colleague Alberto Nardelli, the Guardian’s data editor, makes a good point:
Spain has basically had the election that Britain was expecting in May. #20D
7.17pm GMT19:17
Some are pointing out that - if the exit polls are correct - then the lure of Podemos appears to have been significantly underestimated in previous polls, while that of Ciudadanos has been overestimated:
Según sondeos a pie de urna, Podemos estaba infraestimado por las encuestas, Ciudadanos sobreestimado pic.twitter.com/7DBHuV0g6B
7.14pm GMT19:14
The Spanish TV station Antena 3 is also predicting a win for the Popular party, but, again, without an absolute majority.
El PP sería el más votado en porcentaje, seguido de Podemos, PSOE y C's https://t.co/VmldK6UiDi #eleccionesA3 pic.twitter.com/qFsuBul1F5
7.09pm GMT19:09
A poll for RTVE, Spain’s public service broadcaster, gives the Popular party 26.8% of the vote and 114-188 seats, the Socialists 81-85 seats, Podemos 76-80 and Ciudadanos 47-50 seats.
7.05pm GMT19:05
According to the exit polls, the Popular party would win between 114 and 124 of the 176 seats it would need for an absolute majority. The Socialists would win 79-85 seats, Podemos 70-80 and Ciudadanos 46-40.
7.03pm GMT19:03
Right, so the exit polls are calling a victory for the Popular party - albeit without an absolute majority. The Socialists are forecast to finish second, with Podemos third and Ciudadanos fourth.
7.01pm GMT19:01
BREAKING: SPAIN’S RULING CONSERVATIVES WIN GENERAL ELECTION, FALL SHORT OF ABSOLUTE MAJORITY - EXIT POLLS
7.01pm GMT19:01
And what of Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos (which means We Can)?
Iglesias, who voted in a working class neighborhood of Madrid, said Spain was “going through a new transition” as Podemos and Ciudadanos seek to take votes away from the nation’s traditional Popular Party and Socialist Party, which have dominated Spanish politics for more than three decades.
Iglesias said: “After tonight, I am sure the history of our country will change.”
6.58pm GMT18:58
The leader of Spain’s new business-friendly Ciudadanos party, Albert Rivera, has said his country is entering into a new era of democracy with a vote likely to end the nation’s decades of two-party political dominance.
Casting his vote in a working class suburb of Barcelona, Albert Rivera said he and other young Spaniards who weren’t alive during the nation’s 1939-1975 dictatorship “didn’t experience the first democratic transition [and] are experiencing a second one”. He added: “This is a new era.”
At the age of 36, Rivera is the youngest candidate among the four main parties vying for power. But without heavy voter turnout, Rivera warned that Spain might not change the way he wants it to.
“There have never been changes in Spanish politics when there has been low participation,” he said. (Via AP)
Updated at 6.59pm GMT
6.56pm GMT18:56
The leader of Spain’s main opposition Socialist party expressed hope that his fellow citizens would turn out in droves for a landmark election as he cast his vote in a wealthy Madrid suburb.
Pedro Sánchez, who showed up at a polling station in Pozuelo de Alarcón with his wife, said the “best news we can hope for today is that we get a high turnout of voters. Spaniards know that today is a historic day.”
He added: “The future is not set in stone and we can write it with our vote.” (Via AP)
6.54pm GMT18:54
How have the party leaders spent polling day? This from Associated Press (AP):
The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has voted in a well-heeled Madrid suburb and then headed off for a long lunch with his family. Rajoy said he was confident “people will choose what they think is best for their country” as they decide whether to vote for his right-of-centre Popular Party, the country’s main opposition Socialist Party or two new upstart parties aiming to shake up Spain’s traditional two-party dominance.
Rajoy told reporters who swarmed around him at his polling station in the suburb of Aravaca that he would head in the evening to the Popular Party’s downtown Madrid headquarters to watch the results start coming in.
6.51pm GMT18:51
The Spanish consulate in London has been busy today. According to this tweet, UK-based Spaniards queued for five hours to vote.
Cinco horas de cola en Consulado de Londres #FaltaMiVoto pic.twitter.com/1R33FisbG2
6.48pm GMT18:48
Hats off to the residents of the Riojan hamlet of Villarroya, which once again became the first municipality in the region to close its ballot box - at 9.01 this morning. The impressive feat probably had something to do with the fact that there are just six people on the electoral register.
Still, as the mayor, Salvador Pérez, put it:
We were all down there first thing to exercise our right to vote.
In 2011, Villarroya closed its ballot box at 9.07am.
6.48pm GMT18:48
With the polls due to close in a few minutes, voter turnout looks to be slightly up compared with the last general election in 2011.
The government says turnout as of 6pm (1700 GMT) was 58.4 %; voter participation was 57.7% at the same point last time round.
6.48pm GMT18:48
With so much at stake, people are being encouraged - on Twitter and elsewhere - to get out and vote. As this tweet says: “All those who are going to be complaining about the election results tomorrow: if you’re not going to vote today, don’t grumble.”
Aquellas personas que mañana tendrán quejas de los resultados de las elecciones, si no vais a votar hoy... No os quejéis #MiVotoCuenta
6.48pm GMT18:48
What exactly is at stake? Who are the parties and what’s on voters’ minds? Here’s a taste of our election guide, courtesy of my colleague Alberto Nardelli.
Spain is electing all 350 members of its lower house, the Congress of Deputies, and most of the Senate (208 of 266 seats).
Since Spain’s transition to democracy at the end of the 1970s, general elections have been dominated by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) or the centre-right People’s party (PP) and its earlier incarnations.
The only exceptions were the first two votes held after Francisco Franco’s death, in 1977 and 1979. Both saw the now-defunct Union of the Democratic Centre win minority administrations. At the last election, in 2011, the PP won 44.6% of the vote and an outright majority of 186 seats. The PSOE suffered the worst defeat for a sitting government in 30 years, losing nearly 4.5 million voters.
6.48pm GMT18:48
The big difference this time round, of course, has been the emergence of two new parties who are likely to draw votes from the People’s party and the Socialists. The economic upheaval of recent years has seen the rise of the anti-austerity party Podemos and the centre-right Ciudadanos. As our Madrid correspondent, Ashifa Kassam points out, a lot of political soul-searching is going on:
As Spaniards emerge from a debilitating economic crisis and grapple with issues such as double-digit unemployment, cuts to public services and the ongoing exodus of job-seekers from the country, much of the campaign has been focused on the need for political and institutional transformation.
‘I’m convinced that Spaniards will ask for change,’ Ciudadanos’ leader, Albert Rivera, 36, told supporters in Madrid on Friday as the election campaign drew to a close. ‘I’m convinced that these years of weariness, of corruption ... are coming to an end.’
In Valencia, Podemos’ Pablo Iglesias urged supporters to channel the hardship of recent years into political change. ‘We’re ready to lead a new transition in this country,’ said the 37-year-old. ‘This is the moment that all the difficulties and obstacles they’ve put in our way start to make sense, because we’ve made it to the end of the campaign with the possibility of winning.’
6.45pm GMT18:45
Spain’s interior ministry is taking a lot of heat for tweeting a picture of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy of the PP, next to one of Adolfo Suárez, who, in 1977, became Spain’s first democratically elected prime minister following Franco’s death.
The accompanying caption reads: “Thirty-eight years of democratic history have passed between these two pictures.”
#EleccionesGenerales2015 Entre estas 2 imágenes han pasado 38 años de historia democrática en España pic.twitter.com/L00D4GCpvP
The apparent comparison between the two politicians has not gone unremarked. The tweet, which many are slamming as a piece of propaganda, is being attacked online. El País reports that the Socialists have complained to the central electoral council ...
6.36pm GMT18:366.36pm GMT18:36
Good evening and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Spanish general election. Today’s vote is the most hotly contested and unpredictable that the country has seen since its return to democracy following the Franco era, with the results likely to herald the end of the two-party dominance that has marked Spanish politics since the early 1980s.Good evening and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Spanish general election. Today’s vote is the most hotly contested and unpredictable that the country has seen since its return to democracy following the Franco era, with the results likely to herald the end of the two-party dominance that has marked Spanish politics since the early 1980s.
The conservative People’s party and the Socialists – both of whom have alternated in power for decades - are expected to lose seats to anti-austerity party Podemos and centre-right Ciudadanos.The conservative People’s party and the Socialists – both of whom have alternated in power for decades - are expected to lose seats to anti-austerity party Podemos and centre-right Ciudadanos.
The polls close at 8pm Spanish time (1900 GMT) and we’re hoping for exit polls swiftly afterwards and a fairly complete picture by about 10.30pm (2130 GMT). Fingers crossed ...The polls close at 8pm Spanish time (1900 GMT) and we’re hoping for exit polls swiftly afterwards and a fairly complete picture by about 10.30pm (2130 GMT). Fingers crossed ...