Madrid.- Turnout in the first hours of the Spanish general elections rose two and a half points compared to 2019 and exceeded 40%, according to data provided this Sunday by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
In the first five hours with the polling stations open, at 2:00 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) the participation was 40.23%, compared to 37.92% in the previous ones of November 2019, on a day that passes normally despite the fact that it is the first time that they have been held in the middle of the summer season and with many Spaniards on vacation.
This data does not take into account voting by mail, which has reached historic figures in these elections: 2.47 million voters have sent their ballots before this Sunday.
The first of the candidates to preside over the Government of Spain to vote was the president of the Spanish Government and candidate for re-election, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, who asked citizens for a “historic” participation so that the polls allow there to be “a strong government”.
After noon, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, went to his polling station in Madrid, for whom today “Spain can start a new era.”
A total of 37,469,142 Spaniards are called to go to the polls in these elections, of which 2.3 million reside abroad.
Of the voters residing in Spain, 1,639,179 can participate for the first time in general elections having turned 18 since the previous vote, held on November 10, 2019.
Spanish general elections are held every four years, unless the President of the Government orders its early dissolution, as has happened on this occasion.
