A man walks holding an independence flag in downtown Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday. (AP Photo)MADRID: Catalan independence parties are seen as losing their parliamentary majority in an election, according to a poll published on Sunday, though the wafer-thin margin between the two sides predicts a hard-fought campaign to December's ballot. The poll was taken from last Monday to Thursday, just as Spain's central government was preparing to take control of the restive region, which then made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday. Pro-independence parties were seen as taking 42.5% of the vote while anti-independence parties would win 43.4%, according to the poll of some 1,000 people surveyed by Sigma Dos and published in the anti-independence newspaper El Mundo. 1000s cheered as Catalonia declared independence from Spain but within an hour the Prime Minister of Spain dissolved the Catalan parliament.

Source: Bangkok Post October 29, 2017 09:22 UTC