The Socialists of outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appeared to take the lead in Spanish elections on Sunday, according to a survey published shortly after polls closed, but no single party looked close to winning a parliamentary majority, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Neither bloc of left or right parties had a clear advantage, with the right-wing vote split by the emergence of nationalist group Vox, which seems set to win a sizeable presence in parliament, according to the GAD3 survey of voter intentions.
Spaniards cast their votes in numbers close to record highs in the country’s most highly contested election for decades. It is likely to lead to months of negotiations to form a government in a bitterly divided parliament.
This is the third national election in four years, after the first two eroded the decades-long dominance of the two biggest parties, the Socialists and the conservative Popular Party.
The difficulty of assembling a governing coalition in such a fractured political landscape means that it is possible that Spain could head into yet another repeat election.
“I don’t think it’s a problem to have different options, that’s always constructive. As long as they are able to figure out how to work together after the elections — that’s the big question now,” 60-year-old businessman Javier Deval said after voting in central Madrid.
A splintered vote followed by protracted talks to form an administration is becoming a recurrent theme in European politics as voters reject traditional parties in favor of new groups often at the extremes of the political spectrum.