Basque election day.

international | politics / elections | other press Sunday April 17, 2005 10:55 by -

1,800,000 voters to decide today on distribution of 75 seats.

Seven main parties will be competing for seats in the Basque Autonomous Community Parliament.

coverage of the elections in english starts today-

1,799,500 people in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa have been called to cast their ballots. They will decide, among other things, who the incumbent of the Ajuria Enea Palace [official residence of the Lehendakari or president of the BAC-Basque Autonomous Community] will be for the next four years.

(Lehendakari is basque for Taoiseach)
the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC, in Basque EAE, and in Spanish CAV or CAPV) only includes the provinces of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa of the Southern Basque Country (under Spanish jurisdiction). It has been in existence since 1979 when the currrent Statute of Autonomy or Statute of Gernika was passed.

According to the surveys, there will be no significant change as far as the Lehendakari is concerned. If there is any change, it will affect the parties that depend on a single seat. The UA [Unidad Alavesa. A political party acting exclusively in Araba (Alava)], one of the provinces in the Basque Autonomous Community.
It is right of centre and opposed to Basque nationalism.could lose its only seat and Aralar 8During the process to reorganise the Basque nationalist left (which culminated in the forming of Batasuna in 2001) certain people disagreed with the course the process was taking and set themselves up as a separate political party on June 22, 2002 and adopted the name Aralar. The party regards itself as democratic, left-wing, socialist (rather than social democrat) and pro-independence, i.e. in favour of a federal republic of the seven provinces of the Basque Country (Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Lapurdi, Lower Navarre, Navarre, and Zuberoa), as long as this is in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants of each province. It gives priority to political activity and in no way subscribes to the use of armed action to achieve political aims)- has a chance of winning one.

This will be decided today.

2,689 ballot boxes will be ready to collect the votes at the 725 polling stations that are set to open at 09.00. Turnout will have to be very high to beat that of four years ago. At nearly 80% turnout was very high in 2001. There were also many postal votes. This time there have been fewer. There has been a 30% drop in requests for postal votes compared with 2001. The deadline for postal votes ended on Wednesday, but the electoral commission extended it until Friday.

The Basque nationalist left has sparked off the most curiosity during the campaign. The question was whether or not it would be able to stand in the elections. As it could not stand in the municipal and provincial elections, or in the elections to the Spanish Parliament, or in the European elections, there were doubts as to whether the situation would be the same now or not.

Three sets of candidates were in fact presented. The first was Batasuna’s, but it was rejected by the electoral commission, on the grounds that it did not figure in the electoral roll of parties.

note on Batasuna / "HB" :-
left-wing, Basque nationalist political party outlawed in the Southern Basque Country (under Spanish administration)since August 2002 for ites to ETA. From 1978 to 1998 it was called Herri Batasuna (Unity of the People), and from 1998 to 2001 it took the name Euskal Herritarrok (We Basque Citizens). In the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa it won 7 out of the 75 seats (10.12% of the votes) in the 2001 elections. In March 2000 it did not stand in the elections to the Spanish Parliament. It had one member in the European Parliament, who was in the “non-attached” group, until 2004.

The second was Aukera Guztiak, Platform or initiative set up on February 26, 2005 to back an Association of Electors with a view to fielding candidates in the April 2005 elections to the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community. Its aim: to promote civil and political rights by enabling every citizen in Araba, Gizpuzkoa and Bizkaia to have the chance to register his or her choice in the ballot box. It has been promoted by a number of well-known figures, who represent a variety of ideologies, from the fields of culture and Basque cultural activity. which was created by a new association of electors to give the voters of the Basque nationalist left an opportunity to cast their ballots; but it failed to get through the filter of the Spanish Judiciary and was annulled.

So thousands of voters once again found themselves in the same predicament as in the last three elections. But when the campaign was about to start, Aukera Guztiak called together the parties. It appealed to them to drop their election manifestos and support civil and political rights. The EHAK-Euskal Herrialdeetako Alderdi Komunista (Communist Party of the Basque Lands) responded to the request made by Aukera Guztiak, and has been immersed in the campaign ever since and is fielding the AG candidates.

Since then the EHAK has been under the watchful eye of the Spanish Judiciary and the PP. Although the PP has been continually requesting the Spanish Government to start outlawing it, the Spanish Justice Minister, Juan Fernando Lopez-Aguilar, has said there is no proof.
= There are no clear links between the Basque communist party (EHAK) and ETA.

(note on PP - Partido Popular: Popular Party. It was set up in 1989 as a result of the natural development of “Alianza Popular” (founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne after the death of Franco) joined by other centre-right parties. Ideologically reformist, and close to the European liberal tradition and Christian humanism. It came to power in Madrid in 1996 with Jose Maria Aznar as Prime Minister. In the March 14, 2004, General Elections the PP lost to the Socialist Party when it secured only 148 seats out of 350 in the Spanish Lower House with 37.64% of the votes. It controls many Autonomous Communities, Provincial Councils and City Councils of Spain. It has 27 members in the European Parliament in the PPE-DE group. It is present in the Southern Basque Country, too, as the PP in the Basque Autonomous Community (of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) and as the UPN in Navarre.)

All the other parties have been heavily engaged in the campaign. They have concentrated their strength on the need for peace and the messages of most of them have been along those lines.

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Most polls indicated a return to government for the Lehandakari and his "tripartite" coalition. He seeks a "nationalist" mandate to support his plans for further autonomy and independence. His proposals are complex, and include a referendum and further definition of the basque as a "nation" rather than just "autonomous community" and the further development of a "state". The basque at present has tax raising powers but is an integral part of the Spanish state under the constitution.
Opposing this "pan-basque nationalist plan" are the party of central government the PSOE (of Zapatero) and the PP (and the Basque region euivalents of those two parties). These are the political expression of the "pan-spanish front" and count on (or act for) considerable sections of the spanish "estates" including the military, and considerable business interests.

Smaller parties and local afiliates have differing stances.
The left party (reformed marxist) in the central government IU voted against the Lehandakari's plans in the Madrid assembly, but in favour of them in the Basque assembly.
The ruling tripartite of neighbouring Catalonia (itself made of the "green" version of IU, the local PSOE and catalan republican party) has expressed its support for the Lehandakari.

This election won't end or begin anything.

Everything has begun already, and we only know if things have ended if a generation grows up on both sides of the divide which is
the pan-spanish nationalist question
and
the pan-basque-nationalist question
without violence or nastyness anymore.

Which might sound really simplistic, but hey it sometimes is really simplistic.

background articles on this political process -

last night final campaigning-
http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1371
peace promises (most parties hope for peace soon)
http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1377

coverage will update in the english language at this basque news site-
http://www.berria.info/english/

Above explanatory text C&P-ed from
http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=1380
with a wee bit of padding at the end.