Engagement grew to 40.48% at 2:00 p.m., up 2.56 points from 2019

Turnout in Sunday’s general election is 40.48% as of 2:00 p.m., according to data provided by the Ministry of Interior at 2:30 p.m. It is 2.56 points higher than the previous elections in November 2019. On that occasion and at the same time, a turnout of 37.92% was recorded.

“There has been an increase in participation, it’s always good news,” said Minister of State for Communications Francesc Vallis, without elaborating further, when providing the figure from the National Electoral Data Dissemination Centre.

This data does not include voting by mail, which in this election set a historic record and is added at the end of the day. More than 2.47 million voters deposited their ballots at the post office for the J23 election, accounting for 94.2% of accepted applications, the highest percentage recorded in a general election since 2008, the first year with certified statistical records.

In Catalonia, the Basque Country and Madrid share are located

The community of Valencia voted the most, with 46.24%, followed by La Rioja, which recorded 45.75%, and Extremadura, with 45.16%. And the latter is also where the vote grows the most, by about 8 points. It is followed by Galicia, whose figure increased by 7.05 points, to 39.01%.

In Castilla-La Mancha, 44.69% of the electorate went to the polls and Murcia received 44.24% of the electorate. Next comes Cantabria (42.99%), Aragon (42.08%), Andalusia (42.05%), Castilla y León (41.37%), Navarra (41.27%) or Madrid (40.82%).

Below average participation fall Asturias (39.04%), Galicia, the Balearic Islands (37.27%), the Basque Country (37.20%) and Catalonia (36.79%).

There are three communities where participation is declining compared to previous elections: Catalonia (-3.8 points), the Basque Country (-3 points) and Madrid (-0.16 points).

Vote at a polling station in Barcelona, this Sunday

Anna Jimenez

In total, 37.5 million citizens have been called to go to the polls. They will not face major setbacks because 100% of the 60,314 planned polling stations were set up normally, according to Home Office data. With them all forming at 10.20am, the last to be set up are those in the Canary Islands, where schools open an hour later, and one in the Basque Country.

The great candidates Vote first thing in the morning. Pedro Sanchez was the first to wake up, minutes into Election Day.