Spain on Saturday prepared to bury a former Socialist councillor shot dead in the Basque Country in what many said was an attempt by separatists to influence Sunday's poll, just as Islamist bombings did in 2004. Spain's Socialist government and conservative opposition immediately blamed the killing of Isaias Carrasco on Friday on Basque separatist fighters ETA.
"ETA seeks its own 11-M," Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper headlined, referring to March 11, 2004, when al Qaeda linked militants bombed Madrid trains killing 191 people three days before the last election.
Anger at the conservative government's attempts to pin those bombings on ETA, despite mounting evidence it was executed by Islamist militants, helped opposition leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero come from behind to win elections three days later.
Friday's killing in the town of Mondragon cast a pall over Sunday's poll in which the Socialists are favoured. But analysts said it was unlikely to radically change the outcome, due to both its smaller scale and because the two parties hold relatively similar positions on not negotiating with ETA.
This time around, the Spanish economy is seen as the key, something that seemed unlikely a year ago with economic growth above 4 percent and a unemployment hovering at a 29-year low.
Since then, however, the global credit squeeze has choked an already cooling property market. Economists say growth could fall to 2.0 percent this year - a rate not seen since the early 1990s. Unemployment has risen by 240,000 in a year to 2.3 million and indebted Spaniards, struggling to meet higher mortgage repayments, are complaining about racing food and fuel prices that pushed February inflation to a record 4.4 percent.
More than 35 million Spaniards are eligible to vote on Sunday in an election marked by heated exchanges between Zapatero and Popular Party opposition leader Mariano Rajoy over the economy, immigration and the fight against ETA. The guerrilla group has killed more than 800 people in its four decade fight for an independent Basque state.
Carrasco is due to be buried on Saturday afternoon. Police are still hunting his killers and security forces across Spain were on maximum alert ahead of the vote. Both the PP and the Socialists - careful not to be seen using the councillor's murder for political gain - cancelled campaigning on Friday and showed an unusual degree of solidarity in an otherwise divisive campaign. Electioneering would have ended at midnight anyway as political activity is banned during Saturday's "day of reflection".
Carrasco's 19-year-old daughter Sandra, who had been cradling her dying father in her arms less than 24 hours earlier, emotionally told a scrum of reporters that he died defending freedom.
"Those who want to show solidarity with my father and our pain should turn out in massive numbers to vote on Sunday to say to the murderers 'We are not going to take one step backwards'," she said in Mondragon's packed town square. Political commentators said Carrasco's death might boost the turnout, which could help the Socialists as normal convention suggests PP supporters are more reliable voters.
A drop from the unusually high number who voted four years ago could hurt the Socialists, who led the PP by 3.9 percent to 4.6 percent on Monday - the last day before a pre-electoral ban on publishing polls came into force. In Valencia, the world indoor athletics championships came to a halt at midday, as athletes and spectators observed a minute's silence in memory of the former councillor.
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