BARCELONA, Spain – Catalonia’s government said more than a million voters participated Sunday in an informal vote on whether the wealthy northeastern region should secede from the rest of Spain.
The regional Catalan government pushed forward with the vote despite Spain’s constitutional Court ordering its suspension on Tuesday after it agreed to hear the Spanish government’s challenge that the poll is unconstitutional.
READ MORE: Catalonia calls off independence vote, to hold unofficial secession poll
The Catalan government said that over 1.1 million of the 5.4 million eligible voters had voted by 1300 local time at polling stations manned with more than 40,000 volunteers. Results are expected Monday morning.
“Despite the enormous impediments, we have been able to get out the ballot boxes and vote,” regional president Artur Mas said after depositing his ballot at a school in Barcelona.
READ MORE: After Scots vote no, Spain’s Catalan parliament set for secession vote move
The ballot asks voters two questions: should Catalonia be a state, and if so, should it be independent.
Polls show that the majority of Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants want an official vote on independence, while around half support breaking centuries-old ties with Spain.
Catalonia’s push for independence comes two months after the Scots voted to remain in the United Kingdom.
Mas has said the vote, which lacks guarantees such as an electoral roll, is only symbolic and will likely lead to anticipated regional elections that will stand-in for a referendum on independence.
There was a festive atmosphere as hundreds lined up in front of another school in Barcelona, with some wearing pro-independence regalia.
“I voted for independence because I’ve always felt very Catalan,” said Nuria Silvestre, a 44-year-old teacher.
“Maybe I wasn’t so radical before, but the fact that they are prohibiting (the vote) from Madrid has made me.”
Catalan television showed similar lines of voters across the region.
Spanish state prosecutors announced late Saturday that they were opening an investigation to determine if by holding the informal vote in defiance of the court’s suspension the Catalan government has broken the law.
Catalonia has seen rallies of hundreds of thousands of pro-independence supporters for the past three years, after Spain’s economic downturn and the Spanish government’s repeated denial to grant Catalonia control over its financial future.
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