Spanish vote in litmus test for General Election

Spaniards voted today in local and regional elections following an acrimonious campaign centring on major issues such as terrorism and the Basque conflict.

The voting for town halls nationwide and legislatures in 13 of Spain’s 17 semiautonomous regions are seen as a dry run for general elections next year.

They are also the first major test of voter sentiment toward Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero since he came to power in March 2004 after the Madrid train bombings by suspected Islamic militants.

In Spain, parties that win the most votes in local elections usually go on to win the next general election.

This was the case in 2003 local voting that preceded Zapatero’s win. The next general election is scheduled for March 2008.

In northern Spain’s Basque region and neighbouring Navarra – also home to many Basque nationalists – police reported protests by people angry over court rulings that barred most of the candidates endorsed by Batasuna, the outlawed political wing of the armed separatist group ETA.

In Navarra, police dispersed a group of 30 protesters who tried to force their way into a voting centre in the town of Baranain wearing T-shirts with the insignia of Basque Nationalist Action, a party that saw half of its candidate lists annulled over alleged links to Batasuna.

Another 20 supporters of the party harassed the mayor of San Sebastian, Socialist Odon Elorza, as he cast his ballot in the seaside city, chanting against the ban and waving party posters in his face.

Others in Bilbao shouted: “Where are our rights?” and “This is not democracy!” at Basque Socialist leader Patxi Lopez after he voted. One person was arrested after a similar scuffle at another polling station in the northern city.

Pre-election polls suggested there will be little change nationwide this time, with the two main parties retaining their respective regional strongholds and just two possibly registering slight swings.

Two weeks of campaigning saw national leaders dig at each other over issues of national, rather than local, scope.

Conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party accused Zapatero of betraying Spaniards by negotiating with ETA in a once-promising peace process that ultimately made Zapatero look silly when ETA set off a bomb at Madrid airport on December 30, killing two people and ending a ceasefire.

Much attention is being focused on the Basque country even though the regional legislature is not up for grabs, just the town halls. This is also the case in Catalonia, Andalusia and Galicia.

Batasuna says the absence of its candidates will damage the peace process, and ETA warned it would take it into account if Batasuna-linked candidates were not allowed to run.

During the campaign, Zapatero dug into Spain’s still-open wound of the 2004 terror bombings to depict the Popular Party as a party that lied and cannot be trusted. The Popular Party was in power at the time of the massacre and blamed ETA even as evidence mounted of Islamic involvement.

Zapatero’s Socialists won the general elections three days after the bombings in what was widely seen as punishment of the conservatives for misleading voters by blaming ETA.