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The thousands of National Police and Civil Guard agents that are in Catalonia have now moved out of their bases. They were deployed throughout Catalan territory before 9am this morning, when voting opened in the Catalan self-determination referendum, despite it having been suspended by Spain's Constitutional Court.

As reported by Spanish government sources, the agents left their bases and were deployed to different points of Catalonia.

In total, about 12,000 officers from the National Police and the Civil Guard are mobilized in Catalonia to thwart the referendum called by the Catalan Government.

At the same time, patrols of the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, who have been appearing at polling stations with the judicial order to close them, have had their activites limited to making an appearance, due to the many people gathered from the early hours. In many cases they have then left the scene to applause from the congregated public.

At numerous voting centres, deluges of people have been present from the early morning onwards to prevent their closure. Ballot boxes and papers for referendum voting also arrived.