Isola wins by-election for GSLP with 10% margin

Triumphal march

GIBRALTAR (GBC) The GSLP's Albert Isola has won the by-election, clinching approximately 10% more votes than the GSD's Marlene Nahon. Of the 10,033 votes cast, almost 4,899 went to Mr Isola. Disregarding the 204 spoilt and blank ballot papers, the GSLP candidate got a nod from 49.8% of the electorate.>>>

Barack Obama: four more years

We refrained from any comment on Barack Obama's election yesterday because we didn't want to influence the polls in any way (Ed.: there's a tongue in a cheek here somewhere) but today we can, and will, say: Yes you can if they'll let you. (Also we liked this photo of the victory celebrations.)

Mayor resigns after vote buying sentence

Resignation speech

MURCIA Matías Carrillo, PP Mayor for 13 years of  the small town of Fortuna, in Murcia,  resigned last week after he was charged and found guilty of buying votes. His case went to the Supreme Court after several appeals in which Carrillo insisted on his innocence. However, he was found guilty of offering work for votes prior to the 2011 local elections. He was fined with 12 weekends' arrest and six euros per day for six months. His Councillor for Employment, María Dolores Sánchez, was also found guilty of collusion to buy votes in the same case. Both of them were also barred from public office for five years.

Regional elections: €50 'in advance'

A curious, rather than furious, reaction to the elections held last Sunday in Andalucía. When they were counting the votes at one of the polling stations in Sanlúcar de Barrameda the officials found inside an electoral envelope, a €50 bill and a note that reads: "The winning party, whichever it might be, is going to cheat and rob me. Therefore I am paying these €50 in advance. If I were you, I would spend them on a couple of drinks at some bar somewhere, and then I would think about the fact that today I have done nothing to improve democracy but rather to destroy the welfare state." The money was handed over to a court, but there is no news as to whether any politician actually saw it all...

PP wins but Left will govern in coalition

Image: Front Page of Europa Sur

ANDALUCÍA The Partido Popular won yesterday's regional elections in Andalucía. This is the first time in over 30 years of democracy that the PP beats the PSOE in Andalucía. But their 50 seats on the parliamentary roster does not give them an absolute majority, whereas the PSOE's 47 and IU's 17 will govern as a Leftist coalition. This is actually a surprise, as all the polls had given the PP a vast majority that did not come about in reality. Participation was 62.23%, low compared to other elections, which has traditionally benefitted the right, though this seems to be the exception proving the rule. (More on this subject later.) 

Elections? What elections?

Plastered everywhere

ANDALUCÍA Yes, two autonomous regions, Asturias and Andalucía,  are holding elections on Sunday, March 25. to elect who will run the Junta de Andalucía. Favourite so far is the Partido Popular, by quite a margin. This is the seventh try for PP Secretary General for Andalucía, Javier Arenas, whose tenacity may be rewarded at last. The PSOE has governed Andalucía since the advent of post-Franco democracy and has always considered this region its bailiwick, but it is enmeshed in a series of corruption cases -especially those involving the ERE scandal of misuse of redundancy notice monies- as well as its lack of cohesion during the party's recent internal elections. But, you ask, are EuroExPats (there's a new noun being born!) allowed to vote, like in municipal or local elections? Short answer: No - which is why we haven't been covering the subject a lot (at all).

Final Gibraltar elections results

(Source: Wikipedia)

GIBRALTAR (GibChronicle) Thanks to some 300 votes, the GSLP/Lib Alliance is in with all ten of its candidates, Fabian Picardo topping the poll. GSD candidates Yvette del Agua, Joe Holliday and Lianne Azopardi did not make it into Parliament. The official results in percentages: Alliance 48.88%; GSD 46.76% and PDP, 4.36%. After Picardo, the second highest vote was taken by Dr John Cortes (GSLP), while Joe Bossano came in 5th and Peter Caruana, 7th. Daniel Feetham was the second highest GSD-voted candidate.

Spain won't talk about sovereignty; no change there, then

Gibraltarian sentiment

GIBRALTAR (By Alberto Bullrich) The electoral tables have turned in Gibraltar as well as Spain, both places changing the colour of their respective governments. The winners on the Rock, the GSLP/Lib Alliance, are well known to their opposition of any talks on the sovereignty of their homeland. And after the elections in Spain, the winners there (PP) announced that they foresaw an end to the Tripartite Forum because it had never agreed with Gibraltar's participation at the same level as Spain and Gibraltar. The PP, however, say that it would be useful to carry on with the direct London/Madrid (i.e. minus Gibraltar) talks  that were (so rudely?) interrupted in 2002 by losing the elections that brought the PSOE  to power.>>>

Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar's new Chief Minister

GIBRALTAR (Agencies) The largest voter turnout since 1980, the result of a heated campaign, finally saw Fabian Picardo, of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party, elected with over 50 % of the vote. The results puts an end to 16 years of Peter Caruana (Gibraltar Social Democrats, or GSD) in Government. Caruana has just congratulated Picardo, who appreciated "the example of democracy" given by Gibraltar and thanked the electorate for participating. He also thanked Gibraltarians for their support over the years, adding that "we make our own decisions", a reminder of the many advances in that direction made during his mandates. The former Chief Minister also told the new one that he is available to work for Gibraltar.

Much ado about two Peters in Gibraltar

GIBRALTAR In an exclusive scoop by David Eade in Gibraltar's Panorama (the GSLP paper and online) it is revealed that he had found out that a book by former Europe Minister Peter Hain, titled 'Outside In', is due to be published in January. The book apparently tells the full story of Hain's conversations with Chief Minister Peter Caruana, in which joint sovereignty of the Rock was discussed in 2001 - the article calls these 'notorious' and Eade says that the Foreign Office and Labour would wish to forget them. It turns out that the FO stopped the memoirs from being published before the Gibraltar elections on the grounds that it might have influenced them. In the meantime, The Gibraltar Chronicle published an article by Editor Dominique Searle this morning titled 'Hain Rejects 'Election Spin' and Caruana Rubbishes Panorama's Joint-Sovereignty Story'. Elections are held tomorrow on the Rock and we will attempt to have the results as soon as possible.

22,157 Gibraltarians to vote on December 8

Parliament: Who will sit where?

GIBRALTAR General Elections are to be held on December 8, and 22,157 people are allowed to vote - 1800 more than at the last elections in 2007. There will be twelve places at which to vote, and more urns, reflecting the increase in voters. Candidates are campaigning as we write (and as we sleep probably), and the rhetoric is heating up. The latest polls indicate a win for the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP)/Liberal Alliance but it will all be decided by, you guessed it, the Undecideds. Party loyalty is still present, certainly, but the general in-the-street feeling is that the Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD), who have been in power since 1996, have 'outstayed their welcome', as someone said. To quote Julian Fenice, whose article appeared on ViewsHound, and, for those who don't know about these things, to learn something about how the Parliament of Gibraltar works:>>>

PP landslide sinks PSOE

SPAIN The Popular Party lead by Mariano Rajoy swept into power at yesterday's General Elections in an unprecedented landslide. Only a few provinces, including Sevilla, went to another party. On the map, the red is for PSOE and the orange, for CiU (Convergencia i Unió), the Catalan nationalists. Blue is for PP, which managed to obtain almost 45% of the total vote against a mere 28.73% for PSOE. Or, 186 seats against 110 in a chamber total of 350. That is a very comfortable absolute majority, so no need for coalitions or pacts and agreements. Also noticeable is that several minority parties, including IU, Amaiur (Basque Nationalists) and UPyD increased their seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Senate, the PP humiliated their Socialist rivals: 136 seats v. 49, from a total of 208.

Election campaign ends with Spain under attack by markets

SPAIN (El País/A.R-A.S.) The Spanish government on Friday sought to reassure investors it could service its debt as the country remained in the eye of the storm that has been ravaging the euro-zone sovereign debt market. According to figures compiled by Bloomberg, Spain's risk premium on Friday moved above Italy's for the first time since August but steadied as the European central bank stepped in again to buy Spanish government bonds. The spread between the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond and the German equivalent closed up 17 basis points at 476 basis points after having hit a new euro-era record high of 503 basis points at one point in the session. Speaking at a news conference after Friday's Cabinet meeting, the last before Sunday's general election, Economy Minister Elena Salgado said there was "absolutely no concern" about Spain's capacity to meet its debt commitments. At an auction held on Thursday, the Treasury was obliged to offer a yield of over seven percent on 10-year government bonds, the highest rate since 1997.>>>

Full party candidate lists for Gibraltar elections

Debating at CampoPulse offices

GIBRALTAR Following our earlier item on the present opposition parties' lists we thought that in the interests of fairness and objectivity, we should also publish those of the party  presently in power. However after heated debate at our editorial offices (in the loo, in front of the mirror), we decided that in the further interests of democracy, we should in fact publish all three lists at the same time. Don't ask. So in the even further interests of peace among the monkeys, we heretofore declare no interest in the matter other than occasional. See the lists below>>>

Gibraltar Socialists close their electoral list

John Cortés (Photo: vox.gi)

GIBRALTAR (Press release) The GSLP (Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party) has presented its final list of candidates for the General Elections on December 8. Among the new faces on the party's list are John Cortés, well known environmentalist, Samantha Sacramento and Paul Balban. Again on the list are Fabian Picardo, this time as Leader, Joe Bossano, Picardo's predecessor, Gilbert Licudi and Charles Bruzon. The candidates were confirmed on Monday at a meeting of party members. The GSLP will again be going to the electorate in coalition with the Gibraltar Liberal Party, whose candidates are Josph García, Steven Linares and Neil Costa.

Gibraltar elections set for December 8

(Photo: Gibraltar Chronicle)

GIBRALTAR Peter Caruana yesterday called for elections on December 8, ending weeks of speculation on the subject and setting them justa few days after general elections in Spain. He asked the Governor at the Convent (photo) to dissolve Parliament and is now Acting Chief Minister, and the head of a temporary Government, as well as leader of the Gibraltar Social Democrats. The decision was presented after Caruana presented his party's list of candidates. Gibraltar is now faced with a 36 day campaign that promises to be fought bitterly, as usual. (In the meantime, CampoPulse will attempt to keep abreast of the situation.)

National elections campaign begins tonight

Candidates Rajoy (l.) and Rubalcaba

SPAIN The official election campaign gets under way at midnight tonight, although in fact it has been going on for months. The truth is that the PP has them won for some time. The PSOE Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero leaves a record 5 million unemployed and the economy in chaos and polls show that Mariano Rajoy, 56, the PP candidate for President of the Government (the official title for what is otherwise a Prime Minister), leads by anything between 12 and 16 points, depending on who pays the pollster. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, 60, the PSOE candidate, has little chance of success, even with the announcement that the Basque terrorists of ETA have declared a ceasefire, a negotiation instigated by him when he was Minister of the Interior.>>>

National elections called for November 20

(Photo: Europa Sur)

SPAIN (Agencies) Premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced yesterday that he was calling early national elections on November 20th, so that the next Government can take charge of the 2012 financial year and therefore "project political and financial stability over the next few months." Zapatero made the announcement at a press conference after the Ministers Council held every Friday. He pointed out that this would leave enough time to approve and set into place the laws and financial reforms that are in their 'final phase'. The news is not surprising, as the present Government is in what opposition leader Mariano Rajoy has called 'crepuscular' - or to put it even more cruelly: in its death throes. As to regional elections in Andalucía, traditionally held at the same time as the national polls, Zapatero said that it was the President of Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, who must make that decision. At a party meeting on Monday, Griñán said, "I insist that the elections in Andalucía are fine in March" (the month the nationals had been scheduled for prior to Zapatero's announcement yesterday).

Over 8,000 councils get 'constituted' today

(El Mundo - interactive)

SPAIN (Agencies) The political map of Spain today undergoes a change that has not been seen since democracy returned to the country after the Franco dictatorship. On the left is a map with all the municipalities that held elections last May 22. 4,000 Socialists will be out of power by this afternoon. The colour blue (see more below) represents those where the PP will be governing for the next four years - or at any rate, where they got the most votes. Political pacts, agreements and other manipulations of the people's wishes are and have been afoot almost everywhere, not least in the Campo de Gibraltar. CampoPulse will be offering a comprehensive report on the situation of all seven local municipalities, so WATCH THIS SPACE.>>>

She has the key to an intriguing political folderol

Pilar Lobato Carrión

CASTELLAR (Agencies) The whole of Castellar de la Frontera is waiting for Pilar Lobato Carrión to decide what to do. She is the only member of the PP to have been elected onto the Council. She has four options at tomorrow's constitutional session when the Mayorship is decided: She can vote for the PSOE, which is unlikely given her campaign; she can vote for herself, in which case Francisco Vaca , PSOE, would remain as Mayor; she can vote for the IU candidate, which would put Juan Casanova in the chair (two more disparate parties are unlikely to join forces except in extremis); or she can abstain, which would put IU and PSOE at equals and the Mayor has to come from the party with most votes, which would put Paco Vaca back on top. Hold your breath.