Catalonia informal vote backs independence

More than 80 percent of voters in an informal poll in Spain's autonomous region of Catalonia have backed independence, media reports said Monday.

The president of the Catalan government, Artur Mas, who had pushed for the referendum, hailed the poll as "a great success" that should pave the way for a formal referendum, a British daily said.

"We have earned the right to a referendum," BBC quoted him as saying. "Once again Catalonia has shown that it wants to rule itself."

The Spanish judiciary had ruled the vote unconstitutional but Mas warned against any attempt to disrupt it.

Voters were asked two questions -- whether they wanted Catalonia to be a state and whether they wanted that state to be independent.

Of an estimated 5.4 million eligible voters, more than two million people participated in the ballot which has been declared illegal and invalid.

Spanish Minister of Justice Rafael Catala said the poll was a "useless sham", Xinhua reported.

The Spanish government said the vote was mere "political propaganda, organised by partisan forces of independence and lacking any kind of democratic validity".

However, opinion polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of Catalans want an official referendum on the issue of Catalonia's status, with about 50 percent in favour of full independence.

Catalonia moved towards greater autonomy in 2006 when it formally adopted a charter that assigned it the status of a "nation".

However, the nationhood claim was overruled by Spain's constitutional court in 2010.

Economic and cultural grievances have fuelled Catalan nationalism.