MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain: 35 m. voters decide between Zapatero & Rajoy

Rodriguez Zapatero shake hands with Mariano Rajoy

Polls have opened in Spain as the country's 35 million eligible voters decide whether to return the ruling Socialists to power.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's party faces Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party. The faltering economy, rising inflation and unemployment, and immigration have all been high-profile campaign issues. The election has been marred by Friday's killing of a former Socialist councillor 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. Polling stations opened at 0900 on Sunday and close at 2000 (0800 - 1900 GMT). Key issues include the economy, stuttering after a decade of good growth. Inflation is at a 10-year high and unemployment at an eight-year high. The Spanish housing boom is dwindling, exacerbated by the global credit crunch. The conservative opposition Popular Party has also focused on immigration, a bigger issue than in previous polls. The Socialists, meanwhile, have highlighted the liberal reforms of their time in office, including the introduction of a gender-equality law, fast-track divorces and same-sex marriage. Voters will elect 350 members of the Cortes, or lower house of parliament, and 208 members of the 264-member upper house, the Senate. The remaining 56 Senate seats are decided by indirect election by assemblies in Spain's 17 autonomous regions. Smaller parties, such as the United Left Party, and Catalan and Basque nationalist parties may hold the balance of power if the race is 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 councillor 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. Analysts say turnout may be a major factor in Sunday's result. Historically, the PP has had a more solid core vote, and a higher turnout has tended to benefit the Socialists