Spaniards vote in unpredictable national election

Spaniards voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election in which newcomer parties are expected to make big gains against the once-dominant conservatives and Socialists, ushering in a new and potentially volatile era of compromise politics.
With many people saying they want to shake up a political system they consider corrupt and unable to resolve Spain’s economic woes, the outcome is the most uncertain in decades. About one in three of the 36.5 million eligible voters said they would decide whom to support only at the very last minute.
“I would like things to change and for no party to get a majority so none of them will be able to do whatever it wants without listening to others,” said Agustin Aduriz, a 30-year-old engineer who voted in the Tribunal neighborhood in Madrid.
Aduriz said he had voted for upstart anti-austerity party Podemos, though he added he had voted in the past for other parties, on both the left and the right.
“My main hope is for Spain to end up with four main parties instead of two. That would be a good outcome.”
Since the end of Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship and the return to democracy in the 1970s, Spain has always enjoyed stable parliamentary majorities at the national level, with the center-right People’s Party and the center-left Socialist Party alternating in power.
But a more splintered political landscape could now complicate efforts to form a government.
Opinion polls suggest the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will win the vote but fall well short of an absolute majority.
The Socialists are expected to come second, while anti-austerity party Podemos (“We Can“) and a second significant newcomer, the liberal Ciudadanos (“Citizens“), vying for third place which would make them kingmaker in post-election talks.
Source: Arab News