By IRNA
Madrid : Polls are set to open in Spain to decide whether to return the ruling Socialists to power for another four years.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party faces Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party.
The faltering economy, rising inflation and unemployment, and immigration were all high-profile campaign issues.
The election has been marred by Friday’s killing of a former Socialist councilor in the Basque Country.
The shooting, which has been blamed on Basque separatists by police but which no one has so far admitted, brought election campaigning to an early close.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in the small Basque town of Mondragon on Saturday, to pay their respects to Isaias Carrasco, the 42-year-old councilor shot dead on Friday.
“I call on those who want to show solidarity with my father and with our pain to vote en masse Sunday and tell the murderers that we are not going to take a single step backward,” urged his 20-year-old daughter Sandra.
Historically, the PP has had a more solid core vote, and a higher turnout has tended to benefit the Socialists.