Catalan independence parties seen losing parliamentary majority in election

Catalan independence parties are seen as losing their parliamentary majority in an election, according to a poll published on Sunday, though the wafer-thin margin between the two sides predicts a hard-fought campaign to December's ballot.The poll was taken from last Monday to Thursday, just as Spain's central government was preparing to take control of the restive region, which then made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday.Pro-independence parties were seen as taking 42.5 percent of the vote while anti-independence parties would win 43.4 percent, according to the poll of some 1,000 people surveyed by Sigma Dos and published in the anti-independence newspaper El Mundo.