Spain will challenge lists of candidates of new coalition party Bildu

Spain''s public prosecutor''s office and justice ministry lawyers will ask the Supreme Court to ban all the lists of candidates of a new coalition party from May 22 local and regional elections, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

The justice ministry lawyers will also ask the court to prevent another 30 lists of mostly candidates without affiliation on the grounds that they are also an extension of Batasuna.

According to the same sources, both requests will be based on police reports which conclude that Bildu, a new pro-independence coalition formed in March with two legal parties and pro-independence candidates running without affiliation, is a backdoor way to get Sortu people on the ballot.

Sortu, a new party formed earlier this year that says it rejects ETA violence was denied legal status by the Supreme Court on March 23rd. The ruling said the new party Sortu is a repackaged version of ETA''s already outlawed political wing.

Once the Spanish prosecutor''s office and state lawyers challenge the list of candidates, Spain''s Supreme Court will have two days to issue a ruling. If Bildu is barred from running in the May 22nd local and regional elections, the Basque nationalist coalition can appeal to the Constitutional Court, which should issue a ruling before May 5th, when election campaign kicks off.