Voting begins at nine in the morning (0700 GMT) and ends at eight in the evening (1800 GMT), when voter polls will be announced after exiting the polling stations. Experts say the final result is expected to be decided by fewer than a million votes and fewer than 10 seats in the 350-seat parliament..
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called snap elections after the left suffered a defeat in local elections in May, but many are angry that they were called to vote in the height of the hot summer..
Spain’s postal service reported on Friday that voting by mail has already surpassed a record 2.4 million votes, with many people choosing to cast their ballots while on beaches or in the mountains, rather than in their hotter home cities..
Opinion polls show the election, which many candidates have painted as a vote on the future of Spain, will likely be a victory for the centre-right Popular Party..
The formation of a new government depends on complex negotiations that may take weeks or months and may end in new elections. This state of uncertainty could affect the efficiency of Madrid, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union for a period of six months, as well as its spending of European Union funds to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
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