Bildu becomes second party with most votes in Basque Country

A newly-formed Basque nationalist coalition called Bildu became the political party with most seats and second in number of votes in local and regional elections in the Basque Country.

Bildu also won seats in the town halls of three of the region''s provincial capitals. The new Basque coalition won 907 seats and 25 percent of the vote. Basque nationalist party PNV gained second place in the election race with 822 seats, but a greater percentage of the vote, 29.9 percent.

In Gipuzkoa, Bildu won the regional vote with 22 seats out of the county council''s 51.

Basque nationalist party PNV gained second place in the election race with 14 seats.

Basque socialist party PSE-EE won 10 seats, going down from 16 to 10, followed by the conservative party PP with 4 seats, 7.55 percent.

Basque left-wing party Aralar won a seat.

In Bizkaia, the PNV party, run by José Luis Bilbao, remains the principal political force on the Biscay Provincial Council after taking 37.21 percent of the vote. However, it now holds a total of 22 seats, one less than in the 2007 elections

Bildu took second place into the election race with 21 percent of the vote and 12 seats making them the province''s second biggest political force.

Basque socialist party PSE-EE lost ground and went down from 14 seats in 2007 to 9. The conservative party PP won eight seats, as many as in 2007.

In Alava, the conservative party PP won the vote with 25.96 percent of the vote and 16 seats out of the county council''s 51.

Basque nationalist party PNV won second place with 13 seats and 23.71 percent of the vote, followed by Bildu, with 11 seats and 20.96 percent of the vote.

The ruling Socialists won 9 seats and 16.30 of the vote and Ezker Batua won 2 votes with 4.10 percent of the vote.

The conservative party PP won a local vote in Vitoria-Gasteiz getting 9 out of the council''s 27 seats and 29.19 percent of the votes.

The result requires the conservatives to pact with another political party if they want their candidate Javier Maroto to be the mayor of the Basque capital city.

The Basque nationalist party PNV, 19.11 percent of the vote, won second place in the election race with 6 seats tied with the socialist party PSE-EE, with 18.73 percent, and newly-formed Basque left-wing coalition Bildu, 17.78 percent.

Basque left-wing parties Aralar and Ezker Batua did not win any seat.

In Navarre, the regionalist party UPN won the vote with 27.69 percent of the vote; followed by the Socialist party of Navarre, 15.87 percent, Bildu, 11,63 percent; NaBai, 11,45 percent; and PPN, 5,99 percent.