High tensions surround Catalonia referendum in Spain over independence.

Public support for the referendum within Catalonia, a wealthy region in Spain's northeast, has become increasingly vocal as the vote has neared.

More than 5.3 million voters are on the electoral roll, according to the Catalan government. They will be asked to respond yes or no to the question: "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state, in the form of a Republic?"

Reflecting the divergent views in Catalonia, a small anti-independence rally was held Saturday in central Barcelona, with participants waving Spanish flags and chanting, "Catalonia is Spain." The crowd of people, some waving Catalonia's flag, but many hoisting Spain's, grew to fill the square in front of city hall. Protestors tried a few times to pull down a pro-referendum banner hanging from city hall and, failing, settled for planting the flag of Spain just below it.

Pro- and anti-independence protests also unfolded this week in Madrid and other cities. 

A man peels off pro-independence referendum voting posters from a wall on Friday in 

Barcelona.

'Right to choose'

 Barcelona stressed that they want the freedom to exercise their democratic right to hold a vote, whatever the outcome. Some had come to the University of Barcelona to pick up ballot papers handed out by student associations, in case police confiscated more election material.

"I think it's about democracy and liberty," Ramon Hernández, 80, said. "We want to be able to express our opinion, even the ones who don't want to be independent

Added Raul Robert, 43, an industrial engineer: "I don't feel like an independentist nor Catalan, for that matter, but I think every people must be given the right to choose its own destiny. I think it's a matter of democratic rights."

Robert said he'd much rather live in a place allows the democratic right to vote than one that doesn't.

Catalonia has its own regional government, or Generalitat, which already has considerable authority over health care, education and tax collection

But Catalan nationalists want more, arguing that they are a separate nation with their own history, culture and language and that they should have increased fiscal independence. Many complain that Catalonia ends up subsidizing other parts of Spain.