MADRID, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Voter turnout is almost four percentage points down on Sunday in the second Spanish general election of the year compared with the first one held on April 28.
Figures published by the Home Affairs Ministry, based on 99.93 percent of the country's 59,555 electoral tables, show that at 18:00 hours (17:00 GMT) on Sunday around 19.82 million Spaniards -- 56.86 percent of the total electorate -- had cast their votes in the first nine hours of voting.
That is almost 4 percentage points below the 60.74 percent of the electorate that had voted by the same time on April 28. The total turnout of that election was 71.8 percent.
The latest data continues the trend reflected by the 2:00 p.m. figure, when 13.22 million people -- 37.92 of the electorate -- had voted, 3.57 percentage points down on the number of votes cast at the same time six months ago.
Sunday's voting has been taking place in adverse weather conditions with low temperature, strong wind and rain affecting many parts of Spain. These conditions, along with the frustrations many Spaniards feel at having to vote for the fourth time in four years, have clearly affected voter numbers.
Some 37 million voters are called to cast their votes on Sunday in 22,867 polling stations across Spain with 59,555 tables and 211,000 ballot boxes. A total of 92,000 police and Civil Guards are responsible for security during the election.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, signaled that the most important incident of the day had seen a man with a pistol detained by local police in the town of Amposta, south of Barcelona. But she stressed that in general normality had reigned in the country's polling stations.
The pools will close at 20:00 hours local time on Sunday and results are expected before midnight.
