<div><p>Hundreds of thousands of people in Catalonia voted in a symbolic referendum on Sunday that organisers hope will be a step towards eventual independence from Spain for the wealthy region.</p><p>Some 700,000 Catalan residents in 166 towns and villages, or almost 10 percent of the region's population, were called on to answer the question: "Do you agree that Catalonia become a social, democratic and independent state, and member of the European Union?"</p><p>The polls, organised by local associations and supported by some political parties and unions, have no legal significance as official referendums must be mandated by the central government.</p><p>Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in Brussels on Friday that the referendums "are going nowhere".</p><p>But organisers hope that a result in favour of independence, and with a good turnout of at least 40 percent, will push the issue up the political agenda throughout Spain.</p><p>"Tomorrow Catalonia will awake as if it is another country, with new hope," said Uriel Bertran, a spokesman for the organisers, The Popular Consultation on the Independence of the Catalan Nation.</p><p>Another spokesman, Carles Mora, estimated turnout at around 30 percent, but said he would release a definitive figure later Sunday along with the result of the vote.</p><p>"I saw that people were voting with emotion, desire ... realising that what was at stake was the future of our country," he told a news conference after polls closed at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT).</p><p>A sizeable minority in Catalonia would like to see the northeastern region, which has its own Catalan language and distinct culture, achieve independence from Spain.</p><p>They complain that the region, which is heavily industrialised and accounts for 25 percent of Spain's gross domestic product, contributes far more to the Spanish economy than it gets in return.</p><p>"Catalonia is dying, they are killing it and we must react," Joan Laporta, the chairman of Barcelona football club, told the newspaper El Pais on Sunday.</p><p>"No Catalan can accept the fiscal pillaging that we are suffering nor the attacks on the rights and freedoms of Catalonia."</p><p>In a precursor to Sunday's vote, 96 percent of residents in the small town of Arenys de Munt voted in September in favour of Catalan independence. Turnout was 41 percent.</p><p>Further referendums are planned in other parts of the region, including the capital of Barcelona and the cities of Girona and Lleida, early next year.</p><p>"I am voting because I am fed up with how they (the central government) look down on us, how they steal from us, how Catalonia is stripped of its resources," said Ferran Martinez, a 59-year-old businessman in San Cugat del Valles, a town of some 60,000 people near Barcelona.</p><p>"We are losing purchasing power, our companies are losing competitiveness... We need to build our own state."</p><p>Sunday's vote comes as Spain's Constitutional Court prepares to rule on the legality of the region's statute of autonomy, with fears that a negative decision could fuel separatist sentiment.</p><p>The statute, approved by the Spanish parliament and endorsed by Catalan voters in a 2006 referendum, gave the regional parliament enhanced powers in taxation and judicial matters as well as more control over airports, ports and immigration.</p><p>Catalonia, like other Spanish regions, already controlled most aspects of government, including health and education.</p><p>Most controversially, the statute describes the region as a "nation" within Spain.</p><p>The Constitutional Court is reviewing the document in response to a request by Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party.</p><p>A rejection by the court "would be an unacceptable humiliation for Catalans", said Barcelona football club chief Laporta.</p><p>Teams of international observers from regions of the world with independence or secessionist movements attended Sunday's vote.</p><p>They include a representative of the Scottish National Party, Christopher White, a member of Ireland's Catholic republican Sinn Fein party, Joe Reilly, and others from Italy's South Tyrol region, the French island of Corsica, Belgium's Flemish region and from the province of Quebec in Canada.</p><p>Also observing the vote were political representatives from Spain's northern Galicia and Basque regions, which both have independence movements.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65374676&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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