Catalans line up before dawn at polling stations despite Spanish government's efforts to shut down independence referendum

Catalans started to form queues before dawn on Sunday  as they sought to defy Spanish authorities by voting in a banned independence referendum that has raised fears of unrest in the wealthy northeastern region.

The Spanish government claimed on Saturday to have "annulled" Catalonia's banned independence referendum as it took final steps to try to  block the breakaway vote in Spain’s richest region.

In the latest show of force, Civil Guard national police reinforcements began deploying in the darkness in Barcelona where about 100 police vans streamed into the capital of Catalonia from the port where they had been stationed, a Reuters witness said.

"I have got up early because my country needs me," said Eulalia Espinal I Tarro, a 65-year-old pensioner who started queuing with around 100 others outside one polling station, a Barcelona school, at 5 am, four hours before the scheduled start of voting.

"We don't know what's going to happen but we have to be here."

Police shut down electronic voting systems and sealed off hundreds of schools to prevent Sunday's vote, which has put European Union leaders on edge at a time when the bloc is trying to emphasise post-Brexit cohesion.

Catalan leaders remained defiant and promised the vote would go ahead despite officers from the national Guardia Civil using a court order to shut down 29 electronic applications that could be used for voting or to count the results.

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, the Spanish government spokesperson, hailed the move as another “blow to the organisation of the illegal referendum” in which more than a million are still expected to take part.

Spanish authorities have sent thousands of its own police to the region, as local Catalan officers refuse to use force on voters.

Mr Vigo said the vote had effectively been “annulled”, adding that referendum organisers also had no ballot papers or voting lists.

Madrid also suggested that a sit-in at schools, intended to prevent police closing them before the poll, had largely failed.

In pictures: Catalan farmers block streets and protect polling stations

Authorities said that of 1,300 Catalan schools visited by police, only 163 had been occupied and the rest successfully sealed.

The Catalan government denounced the moves as repressive, and insisted they could still operate the vote. "Let's see if they sustain these claims tomorrow", Joan Maria Pique, a Catalan spokesman, told The Telegraph.

“We have everything that is needed in a referendum - especially the main thing: voters,” he said.

Outside the Catalan presidential palace in Barcelona, in front of a banner declaring “We will vote!” Michael Guarin, 41, said there was nothing the Spanish government could do to prevent him casting his ballot for independence.

Catalans would defy the police moves to come out in huge numbers, he insisted. If they could not vote at the schools, “then we will vote outside the schools,” he said.

But Mr Guarin confessed to feeling rattled by the presence of such a large security deployment, with thousands of Guardia Civil and National Police stationed on cruise liners moored in Catalan ports.

The Catalans would vote peacefully, he insisted. But as for the forces dispatched by Madrid, he said: “I don’t know what their intention is, with their rubber bullets, armoured cars and water cannons, I don’t know what they will try to do.“ 

Although he would go to the polls come what may, “some of my family are not going to vote, because of fear,” he said, adding: “A lot of people who want independence are not going to be able to go and vote, because they are afraid.” 

Signs of division were on full display on the eve of voting.

As Mr Guarin spoke, hundreds of anti-independence protesters descended on the presidential palace, waving Spanish flags and shouting: “Viva España."

Arguments quickly broke out between supporters and opponents of the poll, a mass of hands gesticulating as the two sides swapped accusations of fascism and questions over Catalan identity. 

“Fascist? Do you even know what fascism means?” railed Pedro, a 27-year-old wrapped in a Spanish flag.

“Fascism is what happened here the other day,” he said, accusing the Catalan government of illegitimately forcing through its referendum law.

He was quickly drowned out by fresh cries of protest.

“I am Spanish and I am Catalan,” said Pedro, who did not wish to give his last name. “My grandparents lived under Franco and this is offensive. We are all free here.”

In Madrid, thousands chanted for national unity outside the city hall, one of dozens of protests for and against the vote across the country. There, protesters had little sympathy for the Catalan cause.

José, a retiree who preferred not to give his full name, said that he would “send the army into Catalonia tomorrow”, while several attendees demanded the invocation of Article 155, which would strip the autonomous community of its powers.

Amid uncertainty, one prominent leader of the movement appeared to be lowering expectations for the vote. Jordi Sanchez, leader of pro-independence group the Catalan National Assembly, suggested that one million votes would be considered an “abundant success” - a figure far lower than the 2.3 million who cast ballots in the consultation vote of 2014.

Mr Sanchez later attempted to clarify his comments, tweeting: “When I say that a million is not a failure, it is so that nobody says that if there is repression, the results are not valid. Let nobody doubt it.”

The Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan force leading the operation, was given orders to close the stations by 6am on Sunday, but has so far been reluctant to enter into confrontation with protesters.

Escoles Obertes (Open Schools), one of the groups behind the sit-in, called on supporters to descend on the centres at 5am, and if they found them closed, stay there until they could be opened.

Back outside the presidential palace, Mr Guarin said everyone would prefer an authorised poll, but with Madrid insisting it was illegal and Spain’s constitutional court suspending the vote, they had been left with no other option.

“But we are Catalans, we are a brave people, we have borne a lot,” he added. “Tomorrow we will come out on to the street, and we will vote. It is something we have to do.”