Basque leader wins Spanish poll

VITORIA, Spain - Basque premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe appeared headed for re-election on Sunday but was upstaged by communists who won the votes of a party banned as the political wing of armed separatists ETA.

Official results with nearly all votes counted showed Ibarretxe's moderate Basque Nationalist Party winning their eighth straight parliamentary election since 1980 while falling to 29 seats from 33 in the 75-seat legislature.

Coalition partner United Left held its three seats.

That should allow Ibarretxe to form a minority coalition government but it was still a setback to his ambitions to win endorsement for virtual independence from Spain.

Early results and exit polls showed the restive region was still about evenly split between Basque nationalists seeking greater autonomy from Madrid and Spaniards who support territorial unity.

The surprise came from the neophyte Communist Party of the Basque Lands, which came in a strong fourth place with nine seats.

That outperforms the results of four years ago for Batasuna, when it won seven seats, and gives the communists the option of lending badly needed support to Ibarretxe as he tries to form a government.

It was only nine days ago that Batasuna directed its disciplined group of voters to support the communists, who are running in their first election and did not expect to win any seats until getting the support of Batasuna.

The development was seen by Madrid-based parties as giving ETA, classed as a terrorist group by Spain and the European Union, representation in parliament.

"As a democrat, this hurts... ETA and Batasuna have been present in this election... It is a true setback for democracy," said Carmelo Barrio, secretary-general of the right-of-centre Popular Party, which blamed the Socialist government for failing to keep the communists off the ballot.

In the hotly contested battle for second place among the two big Madrid-based parties, the ruling Socialists overtook the Popular Party to reverse the PP's ascendant trend in the Basque Country.

Ibarretxe called the vote a month early after the Spanish parliament rejected his plan for a status of "free association" that would grant the Basque Country more control over taxation, the courts and its foreign relations, but stop short of a complete break with Spain.

The election campaign has been free of violence by ETA, still the most active guerrilla group in Western Europe and responsible for more than 800 killings since 1968 to press its demands for Basque independence.

- REUTERS