Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The Spanish Constitutional Court banned the Catalan parliament from meeting next week to stop the region from declaring independence.
The ban comes after Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said he would declare independence from the rest of Spain "in a matter of days" following the final referendum vote count. In the referendum this weekend, the Catalan government said, around 2 million of the 2.3 million votes cast backed secession. More than 5 million Catalonians were eligible to vote, but the Spanish government ordered police to raid polling places and seize voting supplies.