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Spain election protests branded illegal

Source: AFP - Fri 20th May 2011

The electoral commission declared met last night with regards to the protests planned over the coming weekend, and as a result have branded them 'illegal'.

A number of demonstrations had been planned to coincide with the election weekend by thousands of people in protest over the economic crisis currently gripping Spain.

The Central Electoral Commission said how the protests "go beyond the constitutionally guaranteed right to demonstrate," and will advise it's regional counterpart aswell as the state attorney general of its ruling.

The Ministry of the Interior is still waiting for instruction from the commission in whether to order police to disperse the protesters.

Thousands of protestors, mainly made up from young and unemployed groups have set up camp in the centre of many major towns and cities across Spain. In the capital, a large rally has occupied the Puerta del Sol square to bring their protests over growing youth unemployment to the attention of the world's media.

The so-called 'M-15' group, named after May 15th - the start of the protests - have vowed to continue with the protests regardless.

"We are not politicians and we are not engaging in political campaigning," a spokesman for the organisers, Juan Cobo, said earlier on Thursday. And on Sunday they would "respect the electoral process."

The commission ruled that it was duty bound to ensure "transparency and objectivity of the electoral process and the principle of equality."

"In the days of election and voting our law bans the staging of any act of propaganda or electoral campaigning," it continued.

On an election day it is illegal to form groups "likely to interfere in any manner whatsoever with the access to polling places" as is "the presence of those who may hinder or coerce the free exercise of voting rights."

The ruling PSOE Party is expected to lose a number of key areas to the opposition in the coming elections, and even before the protests, polls predicted devastating losses as voters react to the situation regarding unemployment and spending cuts.

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