Popular Party lose majority in Galicia

The final count of the postal votes sent by Galicians living overseas (mostly in Latin American countries) ended just before midnight last night, and confirmed the results of the elections in Galicia held a week ago.

Manuel Fraga, Spain's most veteran politician and the only politicican still active in Spanish politics to have served Franco, is no longer President of Galicia. The Popular Party needed to win 66 percent of the postal votes in the key Pontevedra constituency to hold on to its overall majority, but in the end they only got 49 percent. For the first time in 16 years, the new regional government will be formed by a coalition between the Socialist party and BNG, the Galician nationalist party.

This result is a great blow for the PP which has always considered Galicia as one of its strongholds, in the same was as the Socialist Party considers Andalucia and Extremadura. Franco was born in Galicia, as were Fraga and the current leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, who took a very active part in the election campaign.

Many of the Popular Party's key members were present at the count yesterday, and some threatened to challenge the result because of the fact that hundreds of votes were not taken into account because their envelopes did not have the compulsory date stamp proving they had been sent before the last voting date. In the end, the total number of votes which were discarded would not have been enough to secure an overall majority for the Popular Party, and this morning it is unclear as to whether or not the party will try to challenge the result or not.