Jeff Dudgeon: Catalan separatists fall short of majority, yet it that stat is hard to find
I was particularity interested in hearing the result of the Catalan elections on Thursday and surprised just how difficult it was to get the key details.
Most news outlets indicated the separatist parties had gained a majority of the seats in the parliament (70 out of 135 seats) but none seemed interested in explaining what percentage of the voters had plumped for the Catalan independence parties.
My research and calculator finally came up with the result: The separatists lost.
Their three parties only managed 47.49%, so a majority of the voters chose parties that did not favour independence.
Hopefully that is the matter settled for a decade.
Any chance the BBC could start carrying detailed results of elections? They are rather important.
Jeffrey Dudgeon, Ulster Unionist councillor, Belfast BT9