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Spaniards vote in elections marred by politician’s killing

— Photo: AP

Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy votes during the general election in Madrid on Sunday.

Madrid: Thirty-five million Spaniards went to the polls on Sunday with a sense of unease and déjÀ vu. Like the election of 2004, this poll too was marred by a terrorist killing although the assassination last Friday of a former municipal councillor came nowhere close to the huge terrorist attack of March 11, 2004 which left nearly 200 persons dead.

Observers said the killing could affect the outcome of this general election either way — voters could punish the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) for being soft on the ETA, the Basque separatist organisation which has been blamed for the assassination, or bring forth a surge of potential abstentionists who feel it is important, in the face of renewed terrorist attacks, to perform their civic duty by voting.

Until Friday’s events, the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was widely expected to be re-elected for a second four-year term, and held a four-point lead over the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) in the most recent polls.

The bitter and divisive campaign had been dominated by the downturn in Spain’s once-booming economy and fears over illegal immigration.

On Saturday, the eve of elections, a day that is traditionally one of quiet reflection with campaigning strictly prohibited, many were left pondering what effect the killing would have on the vote.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the shooting but police said it had the hallmark of the outlawed Basque separatist movement ETA, which has killed over 800 persons in bombings and shootings in its nearly 40-year campaign for an independent homeland.

Mr. Zapatero (47), who scored an upset win in the 2004 elections because the outgoing conservatives insisted on falsely accusing the ETA when in fact the perpetrators were Islamists, is now accusing the ETA of seeking to upset the electoral process with the shooting.

Spaniards united on Saturday against the ETA at the funeral of the slain municipal councillor Isaias Carrasco. There was a wave of hope in the Socialist camp, especially after Sandra, the 20-year-old daughter of Carrasco called on her compatriots to vote en masse.

“Those who want to show solidarity with my father and our pain should turn out and vote on Sunday to tell the assailants that we are going to win,” she said outside of the town hall in Mondragon. She also warned the Popular Party led by Mariano Rajoy to “refrain from politically manipulating” her father’s death. Thousands of people jammed the town square as the coffin carrying the body was carried through the streets to ringing applause. “We are all Isaias,” read a sign carried by a mourner.

Following the 2004 elections, Mr. Zapatero was 12 seats short of an absolute majority in the lower House of Parliament.

He has governed for the past four years with the support of smaller regional and Left-wing parties.

Mr. Zapatero, who has brought in liberal reforms such as same-sex marriage, fast-track divorce and a gender-equality law, has campaigned as the face of a modern, progressive Spain that his government helped to create.

Throughout Mr. Zapatero’s first term in office, the opposition railed against the government’s attempt to negotiate with the ETA, accusing it of showing weakness. Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy, whom Mr. Zapatero defeated in 2004, again underscored his party’s opposition to negotiating with the ETA in an address he made condemning the attack.

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