BBC Monitoring has been looking at the press, and listening to the media:

Madrid daily ABC:

"The citizens of Gibraltar go to the polls today to entertain themselves and little more...

"The referendum called by the Rock's chief minister, Peter Caruana, has no legal validity either in Spain or in Great Britain, and not even in the colony...

"Gibraltarians will today bring to its climax a farce whose only plot is opposition to the negotiations Madrid and London are conducting about Gibraltar's future."

Gibraltarian quoted in Gibraltar's Iberia News:

The residents of Gibraltar are being asked to decide on an agreement which does not yet exist

Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio

"The 2002 referendum is about freedom. Gibraltar could have democratic elections, be decolonised and enjoy prosperity, and not be free.

"Once surrendered, freedom is hard to recover. Gibraltar's freedom, once lost, would be impossible to recover. The purpose of joint sovereignty is not the perpetuation of the people of Gibraltar but their annihilation by absorption into Spain."

Madrid daily El Pais:

"Four mobile ballot-boxes will circulate around hospitals, the homes of the sick who express their intention to vote and Gibraltar prison, where the 12 inmates are being offered the chance to make their voices heard...

Bossano: Sovereignty is non-negotiable

"The detractors maintain that this referendum will increase tension in the Gibraltarians' relations both with the colonial mainland and with Spain, just when an agreement should be reached with both countries with a view to introducing the tax-haven reforms required by the European Union and the OECD."

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana, on Spanish radio:

"Joint sovereignty does not provide a solution to or end the colonial status of Gibraltar. On the contrary, it simply extends and perpetuates it, but with two colonial powers instead of one."

Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, on Spanish TV: "This is a consultation - a consultation which I have described, and I think anyone who examines it in depth must describe, as a virtual consultation, since the residents of Gibraltar are being asked to decide on an agreement which does not yet exist."

Chief Minister Peter Caruana quoted by Gibraltar Chronicle:

"Joint sovereignty is untried, untested and a dangerous concept which has had no successful application anywhere in the world. It is flawed misconceived, impractical and unrealistic."

Speech by opposition leader Joe Bossano, quoted by Iberia News website:

"Fellow Gibraltarians! 'This is the moment of destiny for Gibraltar.' With these prophetic words, Peter Hain closed his speech and the debate in the House of Commons on the 7 November, a year ago.

There can be no carve-up

Gibraltar Chronicle

"A year ago, it was already obvious that the British government was willing to share our sovereignty with Spain in exchange for the lifting of Spanish restrictions...

"Keep your date with history. Show the world the stuff we Gibraltarians are made of, strong, courageous, committed...

"Our sovereignty is not negotiable. No more sovereignty negotiations with Spain after tomorrow. We wish to live at peace with our neighbour, but we will not buy peace with our birthright..."

Spanish newspaper La Razon web site:

This clear challenge to the negotiations between Spain and the United Kingdom on sovereignty over Gibraltar has received funding from British Jewish millionaires resident on the Rock and descended from the Jews expelled from Spain (in 1492).

"They have made large donations to ensure the British colony can hold the referendum on self-determination."

Editorial in Gibraltar Chronicle:

"These are challenging times for Gibraltar... It is important, when our democracy is on show to the world, that we go about our business in a level headed way.

"Spain's small core of hard-liners, circling the Rock like vultures from the past, will be keen to try and sell the referendum and its result as an 'anti-Spanish gesture'. It is far from that...

"Tony Blair may have raised hopes in Madrid that the Gibraltar question can be resolved by a carve-up as was the style in the days of Louis XIV when Gibraltar was first taken. There can be no carve-up."

Gibraltar's online daily, Panorama:

"Already an attempt has been made in Britain to attack the observers, accusing them of coming on a junket. But this has been rejected, with Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the observers, saying that 'this is not a jolly in any way whatsoever'.

"Mr Kaufman is a senior and much respected Labour politician whose credibility is above question. He, and all the other observers, are here to do a job - and they will! Gibraltar is grateful to them all for taking time off to oversee this important day in Gibraltar's history."