Government spokesman Jordi Turull said the voting held on Sunday was valid despite the Spanish constitutional court declaring it as illegal, reports Efe news.
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Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau says more than 460 people have been injured in Catalonia in clashes with Spanish police who trying to prevent a referendum on independence from taking place in the northeastern region.
Videos of Spanish police striking people with batons and firing rubber bullets have surfaced on social media and the Catalonian government has said 465 people have been injured, some seriously.
Madrid considers this referendum illegal, whereas Barcelona’s authorities said ahead of the vote they would consider the referendum lawful.
Police officers prevented people from voting, and seized ballot papers at polling stations.
“Today, we have not had a referendum for self-determination in Catalonia”.
Incidentally, there have been secession talks discussed in muted tones by sections of Kenyans amid in the awake of the annulment of the presidential election by the Supreme Court. Organizers smuggled in ballot boxes before dawn and urged voters to use passive resistance against police.
In another sign tensions would endure beyond the vote, secessionist groups and trade unions in Catalonia called a general strike for Tuesday, La Vanguardia newspaper said.
The injuries to people occurred as riot police stormed voting stations to stop the referendum on independence from Spain.
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon said: “Regardless of views on independence, we should all condemn the scenes being witnessed”.
An estimated 5.3 million of the region’s 7.5 million population are eligible to vote.
But Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido blamed Puigdemont for the violence.
“Why don’t we be more like the British, who have been democratic for many more centuries than us?”
But the Catalan president said the Spanish State has “lost a lot more than it had already lost, and Catalan citizens have won a lot more than they had won until now”.
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The Spanish government order its Guardia Civil to shut down polling stations early this morning in the Catalonia region of Spain.
