SPANISH ELECTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22346, 18 February 1936, Page 11

SPANISH ELECTION

LEFT PARTIES' GAINS POLLING DAY VIOLENCE (Received February 17, 5.5 p.m.) MADRID, Feb. 17 As the result of the general election in Spain, the returns so far to hand show a swing to the Left throughout the country. It is anticipated that the Left Wing will have 180 to 200 seats in the Cortes, compared with 125 the Government expected them to win. The Left was overwhelmingly victorious in all the provinces in Catalonia, the Governor of which, Senor Felix Escalas, a member of the principal Right party, resigned. The military precautions taken in connection with the election polls yesterday resembled those adopted during a state of civil war. Nine thousand troops and police were posted at strategic points in Madrid before dawn, but this did not prevent two people being killed and 10 wounded in gun fights in the early hours. Armoured cars equipped with machine-guns patrolled most of the big? towns, and troops at street corners were ordered to shoot disturbers. The Prime Minister, - Senor Portela Valladares, who took office in December, had given instructions that demonstrations must be broken up immediately. A Communist was killed at Carballino, and the Socialist Mayor of Olves was fatally shot. An engineer, who was identified by the Rightists as Lieutenant Machuca, was attacked by extremists at Cadiz, and drew a revolver and wounded three of bis assailants. Five people were wounded in Granada. •* The contest was most exciting. The fronts of houses, shops and banks in the capital disappeared under huge coloured posters, many most gruesome, depicting gibbets, starving men and women, prison gates and corpses. The services of the foremost artists were enlisted. A floodlit picture of Senor Gil Robles, a former Minister of War, 30 feet high, attracted crowds in the Puerta del Sol. There were countless street fights. Twenty-five parties ranged themselves into two wide coalitions, the National Front composed of Rightists and Centrists, and the Popular Front composed of Communists, Syndicalists and Socialists, and the Left to the Republican parties. A number of provincial polling booths were closed owing to disorders. The Home Office announces that complete tranquillity now exists in all parts of the country.