Spaniards vote in snap election to elect new parliament

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Spaniards are casting ballots in a snap election on Sunday, with a good turnout expected out of the country's 37.5 million registered voters.

Voting for 350 deputies in the Congress and 208 senators for four-year terms began at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT).

The early general elections were announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez following his Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE) performing poorly in local government polls on May 28.

Voters can cast ballots until 8 p.m. local time (1800GMT) at 210,000 ballot boxes located at 22,522 polling stations set up in schools across the country.

More than 90,000 security forces are on duty during the elections, according to officials.

According to local media in the country, citing recent opinion polls, opposition parties are likely to win the elections because voters appear dissatisfied with the government's performance, as demonstrated in the local government election about two months ago.

The first possibility for a future administration is a coalition government of a right-wing coalition between the main opposition party, the People's Party (PP), and the far-right Vox party.

The other possibility is that the incumbent ruling PSOE party forms a coalition government with a new communist party alliance to replace the current coalition partner, the left-wing Unidas Podemos (UP).

The PSOE currently holds 120 seats in parliament, 89 for the PP, 52 for Vox, 26 for the UP, 13 for the Republican Left of Catalonia, 10 for the Citizens party, and 40 for others.

*Beyza Binnur Donmez contributed to this report in Geneva