How Catalonia separatists pulled off vote despite crackdown
BARCELONA, Spain — The ballot boxes arrived from France under the cover of night, were stored in homes and improvised hiding places, and then secretly shuttled to polling stations right under the nose of police.
Grassroots activists who staged a disputed referendum of independence in Catalonia described to The Associated Press how they managed to hold the Oct. 1 vote despite a police crackdown that left hundreds injured.
“It was cat and mouse,” said one activist who was in charge of organizing the vote in a village of about 2,000 residents south of Barcelona.
“In order to not jeopardize the operation, you were told that on such a day at such an hour a ballot box would arrive, and then a few days later, the ballots. The vans would arrive at night,” he said.