Voting began at 9 a.m. local time in the second general election in Spain in six months.

Sunday's elections are the result of the failure of Spain's main political parties to reach agreement over the formation of a coalition government in the previous vote held on Dec. 20 last year.

This time, 36,518,100 Spaniards have the right to vote (7,148 more than in December) with a budget of 130,672,066 euros (around 144 million U.S. dollars), which despite efforts to reduce costs is 0.33 higher than the December vote.

Of the 36.5 million voters, 34,597,844 live in Spain, while 1,920,256 reside abroad and have the right to a postal vote.

Meanwhile 197,245 people will be voting for the first time as Spain elects 350 Deputies in Congress and 208 Senators,

There are a total of 57,526 polling booths set up in 22,953 polling stations, which are open until 20:00 local time.

Finally 92,870 members of the police and civil guard are on duty on election day to ensure events pass without incidents.
Source:XINHUA