The General Assemblies of Álava (in Basque: Arabako Batzar Nagusiak, in Spanish: Juntas Generales de Álava) are the parliament of Álava, a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country.
The General Assemblies are integrated by 51 members for a period of four years. The General Assembly meets at the Province Palace in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Functions Among the powers of the General Assemblies are: Approval of chartered rules, through which matters in which the province has competences are regulated. When it comes to exclusive powers of the province, these regional regulations have rank equivalent to law. Among the matters in which Álava has exclusive powers are the operation of chartered bodies such as the Provincial Council or the General Assembly themselves; the budgets and accounts of Álava, the sector plans, the tax regime, the tax and financing regime of the town councils, provincial and local assets and local demarcations. Election of the General Deputy of Álava, who is the head of the government of the province. Approval of the budgets of the province. Monitor and develop the activity of the Provincial Council.
Election The General Assemblies have 51 members, elected by proportional representation for each constituency, which in this case corresponds to the comarcas of the province. 39 members are returned for Vitoria-Gasteiz, which contains the largest municipality of the province. Five members are returned for Ayala, and seven for Tierras Esparsas, which contains the five remanining comarcas: Gorbeialdea, Llanada Alavesa, Añana, Montaña Alavesa and Rioja Alavesa. A threshold of the 3% is established for having any seats.
Elections to General Assembly are called by the General Deputy (in Spanish: Diputado General). The election date and period from calling elections to polling day always coincide with local election periods.
Candidates to General Assembly are subject to the same requirements as those presenting their candidatures to other elections: i.e., to the stipulations of the Spanish law governing elections. Candidates are announced 27 days after the call to elections, provided of course they comply with the regulations. The campaign begins 38 days after elections are announced, by which time the political parties have to provide their lists of candidates. The campaign lasts 15 days and ends at midnight on the penultimate day before polling.
Presidents of the General Assembly
The President of the General Assembly of Álava is the presiding officer of that legislature. NameTerm of officeLegislature Political Party Emilio Guevara Saleta 7 May 1979 16 February 1980 I Basque Nationalist Party Francisco José Ormazábal Zamakona 16 February 1980 23 May 1983 24 May 1983 30 September 1986II Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu 30 September 1986 3 July 1987 3 July 1987 26 June 1991 III Juan Pastor Álvarez 17 June 1991 22 June 1995 IV Socialist Party of the Basque Country José Manuel López de Juan Abad 22 June 1995 3 April 1999V Independent Mikel Martínez Martínez de Lizarduy 12 April 1999 6 July 1999 Basque Nationalist Party Xesqui Castañer López 6 July 1999 13 June 2003 VI Socialist Party of the Basque Country–Basque Country Left María Teresa Rodríguez Barahona 13 June 2003 22 June 2007 VII Juan Antonio Zárate Pérez de Arrilucea 20 June 2007 15 June 2011 VIII People's Party of the Basque Country 15 June 2011 18 June 2015 IX Pedro Ignacio Elósegui González de Gamarra 18 June 2015 14 June 2019 X Basque Nationalist Party 14 June 2019 19 June 2023 XI Irma María Basterra Ugarriza 19 June 2023 Incumbent XII
Results of the elections to the General Assembly of Álava
Members in the General Assembly of Álava Election Distribution General Deputy1979 7 10 26 14Emilio Guevara (EAJ-PNV)1983 4 1 14 23 9Juan María Ollora (EAJ-PNV)1987 8 3 11 12 10 3 4Fernando Buesa (PSE)1991 7 2 11 3 14 3 11Alberto Ansola (EAJ-PNV)1995 4 3 7 4 15 9 9Félix Ormazabal (EAJ-PNV)1999 6 2 9 16 16 2Ramón Rabanera (PP)2003 3 12 19 16 12007 4 2 14 2 14 15Xabier Agirre (EAJ-PNV)2011 11 2 9 13 16Javier de Andrés (PP)2015 11 1 8 5 13 1 12Ramiro González (EAJ-PNV)2019 12 4 10 17 82023 14 3 9 15 9 1
References
Sources Official website All members of the General Assembly