Friday, March 06, 2009
PSE-EE captures additional seat in Basque Parliament
(Esta entrada está disponible también en español.)
The Spanish news media reports that the Socialist Party of Euskadi-Euskadi Left (PSE-EE/PSOE) has won an additional seat in the Basque Parliament, following today's tally of absentee votes in the province of Araba (Álava).
In last Sunday's election to the Basque Parliament, Basque Solidarity (EA) won the last of Araba's twenty-five seats with 5,267 votes, narrowly ahead of PSE-EE, which had a quotient of 5,266 for a ninth mandate. However, EA won only six votes from Basque voters residing abroad to 140 for PSE-EE, which divided by nine are more than enough to overcome EA's lead in the preliminary count.
According to Europa Press, the distribution of the CERA (absentee) vote in Araba was as follows:
EAJ/PNV - 146
PSE-EE/PSOE - 140
PP - 83
EB-B - 16
UPyD - 12
Aralar - 7
EA - 6
Others - 9
As a result, the distribution of seats in the Basque Parliament now stands as follows:
EAJ-PNV - 30
PSE-EE/PSOE - 25
PP - 13
Aralar - 4
EA - 1
EB-B - 1
UPyD - 1
The loss of Araba's seat is a fresh setback for the EA party, which lost its single seat in the Congress of Deputies in last year's general election in Spain, and now will be reduced to a single seat in the Basque Parliament (down from seven won four years ago in coalition with EAJ-PNV). But more importantly, Spain's two major parties - PSOE and PP - will command a joint majority of one vote in the Basque legislature, and PSE-EE leader Patxi López could form a government solely with PP support, without having to depend on the anti-nationalist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD).
Link (in Spanish): El PSE-EE obtiene 140 votos de los residentes en el extranjero, frente a los 6 de EA
The Spanish news media reports that the Socialist Party of Euskadi-Euskadi Left (PSE-EE/PSOE) has won an additional seat in the Basque Parliament, following today's tally of absentee votes in the province of Araba (Álava).In last Sunday's election to the Basque Parliament, Basque Solidarity (EA) won the last of Araba's twenty-five seats with 5,267 votes, narrowly ahead of PSE-EE, which had a quotient of 5,266 for a ninth mandate. However, EA won only six votes from Basque voters residing abroad to 140 for PSE-EE, which divided by nine are more than enough to overcome EA's lead in the preliminary count.
According to Europa Press, the distribution of the CERA (absentee) vote in Araba was as follows:
EAJ/PNV - 146
PSE-EE/PSOE - 140
PP - 83
EB-B - 16
UPyD - 12
Aralar - 7
EA - 6
Others - 9
As a result, the distribution of seats in the Basque Parliament now stands as follows:
EAJ-PNV - 30
PSE-EE/PSOE - 25
PP - 13
Aralar - 4
EA - 1
EB-B - 1
UPyD - 1
The loss of Araba's seat is a fresh setback for the EA party, which lost its single seat in the Congress of Deputies in last year's general election in Spain, and now will be reduced to a single seat in the Basque Parliament (down from seven won four years ago in coalition with EAJ-PNV). But more importantly, Spain's two major parties - PSOE and PP - will command a joint majority of one vote in the Basque legislature, and PSE-EE leader Patxi López could form a government solely with PP support, without having to depend on the anti-nationalist Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD).
Link (in Spanish): El PSE-EE obtiene 140 votos de los residentes en el extranjero, frente a los 6 de EA
