Spain’s Socialists and conservative challengers neck-and-neck in election count

Polls in Spain’s mainland and the Balearic Islands closed at 6pm local time

Election officials collect ballots to be counted from a ballot box after closing a polling station in Barcelona, Spain (Joan Mateu Parra/AP/PA)

Early election returns show the Socialist Party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez running neck-and-neck with the conservative Popular Party.

With just over half of ballots counted, the Socialists were on course to take 129 seats in the lower house of the Madrid-based national parliament.