HE is the man who would be Alex Salmond.

Artur Mas, president of Catalonia, today goes to the polls seeking an SNP-style absolute majority he believes will deliver an independence plebiscite for his country. His centre-right coalition of moderate nationalists, Convergencia i Unio (CiU), is forecast to win – but not with the kind of landslide Salmond secured at Holyrood in 2011.

Instead, pollsters suggest, Mas's alliance will get enough votes to form a minority administration, such as that of the sovereigntists in Quebec earlier this year.

"Will it be a majority like the one in Scotland, where they could have a referendum, or like the one in Quebec, where they could not?" he asked voters last week. "That will depend on you."

Mas called the snap elections earlier this year after about 1.5 million people appeared to call for independence at a Catalan national day rally in Barcelona, the Catalan capital, on September 11.

The 56-year-old is now campaigning to hold a consultative vote – independence referendums are banned under the Spanish constitution – declaring Catalonia to be a state in its own right.

l Meanwhile, the Scottish independence debate has caused a stir in Northern Ireland, writes Caroline Wilson.

First Minister Peter Robinson claims a similar referendum there would be a waste of time and money as the majority of Catholics now support the union.