The Latest: Voting not so easy for accused Catalan leaders

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on the regional elections in Catalonia (all times local):

Santi Palacios

People line up outside a polling station to cast their vote for the Catalan regional election at a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region.(AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

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People line up outside a polling station to cast their vote for the Catalan regional election at a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region.(AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

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People line up outside a polling station to cast their vote for the Catalan regional election in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

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A woman at a polling station casts her ballot for the Catalan regional election in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

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Ballot papers are placed at a polling station for the Catalan regional election in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

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A nun at a polling station casts her ballot for the Catalan regional election in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. Catalans are choosing new political leaders in a highly contested election called by central authorities to quell a separatist bid in Spain's northeastern region. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

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11:05 a.m.

Catalan politicians are casting their ballots in the regional snap election, but that's easier for some than for others, who are in jail or keeping out of the country to avoid arrest.

Carles Riera, the candidate of the anti-establishment CUP party, a key driver in the regional independence push, cast his ballot Thursday, noting that the election was extraordinary because it had been ordered by Madrid.

He also recalled that members of the ousted Catalan separatist government are in jail or in self-imposed exile in Brussels.

Former Catalan vice president and leading candidate Oriol Junqueras mailed his ballot from a jail near Madrid, his left-republican ERC party said earlier this week.

An 18-year-old woman who has remained anonymous is expected to cast a symbolic vote on behalf of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who can't vote in the Belgian capital. His wife, Marcela Topor, voted in a northern town near the family residence.

Puigdemont wants to be re-elected as the region's president despite facing immediate arrest if he enters Spain.

Many of the separatist politicians displayed on their lapels a yellow ribbon that has become a symbol to call for the release and return of the ousted politicians.

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10:45 a.m.

Sergi Balateu, a 37-year-old marketing director, voted in Catalonia's regional election at Barcelona's Ramon Llull school, where less than three months ago police in riot gear used force to stop him and others voting in an independence referendum.

The Spanish government said the referendum called by pro-independence parties was illegal and sent police to stop it. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fired the regional government and dissolved the Catalan parliament, calling the snap regional election that is taking place Thursday.

Balateu said he voted for Together For Catalonia, which wants the region to secede. He says "it is a strange feeling to vote here today" because of the memories of the Oct. 1 clash, when he and other separatists held hands and tried to protect the referendum ballot boxes.

He says that "for me it is a question of identity. I feel more Catalan than Spanish."

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10:30 a.m.

Voters are queuing at polling stations across Catalonia to choose lawmakers who will be tasked with electing a new regional government.

Manuel Abella, a 64-year-old retiree, says he's voting for Ciutadans (Citizens) because he sees in the upstart pro-business party a fresh alternative to both the Catalan conservatives that have embraced independence and the old guard of unionist parties.

"I want unity," Abella said after voting in a school turned into polling station in central Barcelona. "People are divided. We are at the point that we can't talk politics. A nation's flag should be a symbol of pride, but here it is the opposite. Here people jeer the flag. We have a war of flags."

Also voting in downtown Barcelona, the city's mayor Ada Colau called for a high turnout to mark "a historic day to recover institutional normality in Catalonia."

Colau's left-wing party, which favors more autonomy for Catalonia but not independence, is likely to hold the key to building a majority for a new government.

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9 a.m.

Polls have opened across Catalonia in a hotly contested election aimed at breaking a bitter deadlock over the region's independence drive.

Voting began at 9 a.m. Thursday and the nearly 2,700 polling stations will remain open until 8 p.m. (1900 GMT).

The vote was called by Spain's central authorities after they seized control of the northeastern region in late October. It will be closely watched beyond the country's borders.

Opinion polls have shown fugitive and jailed separatist candidates neck-and-neck in opinion polls with unionists, who claim to be in the best position to return Catalonia to stability and growth.

With a record turnout expected, the more than one-fifth who are undecided among the 5.5 million eligible voters could shift the election outcome.

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