News

Basque Country''s ruling Basque Nationalist Party won the Basque election March 1st but gains from opposition parties PSE-EE, PP and UPyD might stop PNV''s Juan Jose Ibarretxe from being the Basque PM for fourth time.

The Basque Nationalist won claimed 30 seats in the 75-seat parliament, compared to 22 in the previous vote, while the Basque socialist party PSE-EE won 24, six seats more than in 2005.

Opposition conservative party PP won 13, two less than in 2005, followed by the Basque left-wing party Aralar with 4 seats, three more than in the previous vote.

PNV''s former ally in previous votes Eusko Alkartasuna won two seats compared to 7 in the 2005 vote, when it stood in a coalition with the PNV.

Ezker Batua, the third party in the three-party Basque government, won one seat, two less than in the previous vote.

First-timer conservative party UpyD won one seat.

There was a 34.12 percent rate of non-participation and 8,84 percent of the votes were not valid.