Spain votes in fourth general elections in 4 years

Voters in Spain have returned to the polls on Sunday for a fourth general election in as many years in an ongoing quest for a stable government.

The election was called by acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who won most votes in April's general election but failed to form a government. Spain has been struggling to form a stable government since 2015.

Sanchez, who led the country for around a year, was forced to call for fresh elections in April after his budget proposals were rejected in February.

Voting is taking place between 9 am and 8 pm (local time), with first results due out an hour after the end of polling, reported Al Jazeera.

The major parties in the electoral race are the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the conservative People's Party (PP), left-wing populist Podemos, centrist-populist Ciudadanos (or Citizens) and far-right Vox party.

In October, mass protests erupted in Barcelona and other Catalan cities after the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan politicians, involved in organising the 2017 independence referendum, to 9-13 years in prison on sedition charges and other three to fines over disobedience.

According to officials, as many as 200 people were detained since the beginning of the violent pro-independence protests in Catalonia.