Spaniards began to casting their ballots as the general election kicked off at 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Sunday.

Spain's Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy casts his ballot at a polling station in Madrid, Spain, on Nov. 20, 2011. Spaniards began to cast their ballots as the general election kicked off at 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Sunday. (Xinhua/Chen Haitong)
Over 35 million Spaniards are entitled to vote in the tenth general election since the arrival of democracy in the country in 1975.

The last opinion poll held before the voting predicted the Popular Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, defeating the ruling Socialist (PSOE) party, headed by Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

Bowed by a 21.5-percent jobless rate and economic recession, the overall cost of this general election is 5.8 percent down from the last election, which was held in March 2008.

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