General election in the Basque Autonomous Community 2020
The early Basque regional elections for the parliament of the Basque Country XII. The legislative period was originally supposed to take place on Sunday, April 5, 2020. They have been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic . The elections are now due to take place on July 12, 2020. All 75 seats in parliament will be up for election.
Electoral system
The Basque Parliament is the dedicated, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, which has legislative power in regional matters within the meaning of the Spanish Constitution and the Basque Statute of Autonomy, as well as the possibility of electing to trust a Lehendakari or to elect a Lehendakari to withdraw. Voting for Parliament is based on universal suffrage, which includes all nationals over eighteen years of age who are registered in the Basque Country and who are in full exercise of their political rights. In addition, Basques abroad must apply for a vote before being allowed to vote, a system known as "begging"; or expat voting is known (Spanish: Voto rogado). The 75 members of the Basque Parliament are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed system of proportional representation, with a threshold of 3 percent of the valid votes - including blank votes - in each constituency. Parties that do not reach the threshold are not taken into account in the allocation of seats. In addition, the application of the D'Hondt method can lead to an effective threshold of over three percent, depending on the size of the district. A fixed number of 25 seats is allocated to each constituency in order to ensure equal representation of the three provinces in parliament in accordance with the regional statute of autonomy. This meant that as of January 1, 2017 , Álava was assigned the same number of seats as Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa , although their population was the same: 323,978, 1,134,519 and 709,209. The electoral law provides that parties , Associations, coalitions and groups of voters can submit lists of candidates. The associations of voters are, however, obliged to secure the signature of at least one percent of the voters registered in the constituency for which they are standing for election. Voters are prohibited from signing for more than one list of candidates. At the same time, parties and associations that intend to form a coalition in order to jointly take part in an election are obliged to inform the responsible election commission within ten days of the election.
Election date
The term of office of the Basque Parliament ends four years after the date of its last election, unless it is dissolved earlier. The electoral decree is issued no later than the twenty-fifth day before the Parliament's expiry date and published in the Official Journal of the Basque Country the following day, with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day after its publication. The last election took place on September 25, 2016, ie the legislature's term of office ends on September 25, 2020. The electoral ordinance will be published no later than September 1, 2020, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day after publication and the latest possible election date for the parliament is established on Sunday 20 October 2020. This would have been the regular election date.
However, the Lehendakari has the prerogative to dissolve the Basque Parliament at any time and to schedule an early election, provided there is no motion of censure. In this case too, according to the electoral law, the election takes place on the 54th day after the publication of the decree on the dissolution of parliament.
The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu (PNV) made use of this on February 10, 2020 and set new elections for April 5, 2020. The reason for this was not a government crisis, but Urkullu wanted to avoid that the election in autumn would take place close to an anticipated regional election in Catalonia and in a political climate that was heated up by the independence movements in Catalonia. From March 2020, Spain was particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 14, 2020, the central government in Madrid declared a state of alarm, associated with significant restrictions on public life. The Lehendakari then suspended the election by decree of March 17, 2020. This was justified in particular by the fact that the restrictions associated with the state of alarm would make the normal course of the election campaign impossible.
After the pandemic eased, the Lehendakari set July 12, 2020 as the new election day by decree of May 18, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ DECRETO 2/2020, de 10 de febrero, del Lehendakari, por el que se disuelve el Parlamento Vasco y se convocan elecciones. Retrieved April 16, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ DECRETO 7/2020, de 17 de marzo, del Lehendakari, por el que deja sin efecto la celebración de las elecciones al Parlamento Vasco del 5 de April 2020, debido a la crisis sanitaria derivada del Covid-19, y se determina la Expedición de la nueva convocatoria. Retrieved April 16, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ DECRETO 11/2020, de 18 de mayo, del Lehendakari, por el que se convocan elecciones al Parlamento Vasco. May 18, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020 (Spanish).