EA propose elections be declared null and void if Bildu deemed illegal

The Secretary General of Basque nationalist party EA, Pello Urizar, on Friday hinted that he would request that the municipal and provincial elections, to be held in the Basque Country on May 22nd, be declared null and void in the event that the candidates representing coalition group Bildu be declared illegal by the Supreme Court.

The nationalist leader indicated that he would use "all the tools" available to him in order to appeal against the potential cancellation of Bildu''s candidacy in the elections, a move that he said was "politically motivated".

Urizar insisted that EA would not form a coalition with candidates who do no agree to "exclusively political and democratic" means, and reminded journalists during a press conference held in Donostia-San Sebastian, that many of the members of Bildu had suffered first-hand from the "grip of violence and threats".

Urizar explained that in the case that Bildu''s candidacy were made illegal, the next step would be to submit an appeal to the Constitutional Court. Should the Constitutional Court endorse the decision taken by the Supreme Court, he said, they would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The main argument against allowing Bildu to run at the next elections is based on a police report that alleges that the coalition was proposed by ETA in December 2008. During Friday''s press conference, Urizar held up and cited as many as seventeen documents written by EA between 1989 and 2008 in which the national party pledges its commitment "time and again" to the formation of a "sovereign territory".