by Migeru
Mon Oct 22nd, 2012 at 01:42:42 AM EST
Sunday, 21 October, saw two simultaneous regional elections, in Galicia and in the Basque Country. The main result has been a collapse of the PSOE regional parties, conceding a larger absolute majority to the PP in Galicia, and second place in the Basque Country to EH-Bildu, the successor party of the ETA sympathiser parties that were illegal for the past decade, until ETA gave up a year ago.
El Pais: Popular Party to keep Galicia following a low-turnout race
- PNV wins in Basque Country but without absolute majority
- EH Bildu becomes second force in region
[editor's note, by Migeru] I don't have much time tonight so I'll post a results advance and I may promote information from the comments to the body of the diary if others pitch in.
Basque Country results
Being a much smaller region, the votes are already almost fully counted at 22h30, and they look like this:
The most important development is the emergence of left independentists EH-Bildu as the second largest party, and a strong nationalist majority (Christian Democrat Basque Nationalist PNV, plus EH-Bildu). Without seeing the actual numbers I suspect a big contributing factor is the fact that EH-Bildu voters would have cast null votes in previous elections as their party of choice would have been banned by the courts before the election. Actual voter transfers would have played a minor role. Already in the previous election, the then legal (explicitly condemning ETA's violence) left independentists Aralar had eaten the lunch of the local "united left" party EB party, as well as the PNV's centre-left splinter (form the late 80s) EA.
Official election results from the Basque regional government (in English).
Galicia
Update [2012-10-21 18:23:29 by Migeru]: The results below appear to indicate stable turnout, but 12-13% of the electorate is made up of emigrant voters (see comment thread) who tend to vote at a rate of about 25% and whose votes are not included in the count on election night. So one should expect a final vote rate of 59%, for 41% abstention.
In this case, the press talked about a low turnout, but the difference from last time was insignificant. The PP benefits from the low turnout as its electorate is more faithful, and hasn't punished the local party for austerity policies. The local Socialist party PSdG has lost 1/3 of its voters both to the local "united left" party AGE and to protest vote. Left nationalist party BNG also lost 1/3 of its vote.
Official election results from the Galician regional government.
