By Aislinn Laing
MADRID (Reuters) – Spaniards got up early, voted in swimwear and turned ballot papers into fans to beat sweltering heat on Sunday as they took part in an election that many saw as ill-timed in the middle of summer.
By midday, long queues were reported outside polling stations, where staff installed fans, set up portable air conditioning machines and gave out bottles of water to keep voters and polling staff cool.
One polling station in Mallorca moved eight of its nine voting tables outside after the room became “unbearably hot”, RTVE state television reported. There were sporadic reports on local media of elderly people fainting as they went to vote.
Some 40.5% of votes were cast by 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) compared to 37.9% in the last election in November 2019. Another 2.47 million people – about 7% of those eligible to vote in Spain voted before Sunday by post.
Commentators on local media remarked on long queues building earlier than usual.
Most voters said their motive was to beat the heat.
“I’ve always voted early,” one elderly man told RTVE. “Less heat, more coffee!”
In a video posted on Twitter, one man showed up to vote in southern Malaga in a snorkel, flippers and Hawaian shirt in protest at being asked to vote at a time when about a quarter of Spaniards are habitually on holiday.
In Barcelona, some arrived in swimming trunks and flipflops.
“The beach can wait,” Jose, an office manager who did not want to give his last name, told Reuters. “I’m going there now because I have already voted, and feel calmer.”
“Spaniards will vote freely… Despite the weather conditions and against all adversity, we will show the world that Spain can overcome the temperatures, the disruption and holidays,” said a flushed-looking Alberto Nunez Feijoo, of the conservative frontrunners, the People’s Party, as he voted in Madrid.
He has vowed to make it illegal to hold elections at the height of summer.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the elections – which had been due in December – early after the left took a beating in regional elections in May.
Meterological agency AEMET issued high temperature alerts for Sunday, with the hottest areas in Andalusia, Navarra and Aragon where temperatures could touch 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), and up to 39C (102F) in provinces including the capital Madrid.
Spain endured the hottest and second-driest spring since records began in 1961, and higher than average temperatures are likely to continue this summer, with two heatwaves already baking the country in June and July.
(Reporting by Aislinn Laing and Horaci Garcia; Editing by Frances Kerry)
