Ex-Batasuna members register for ballot on alliance ticket

Popular Party says it is working with government to keep Bildu platform out of election

On the same day that the Supreme Court officially rejected Sortu's latest appeal to be allowed to field candidates in the Basque municipal elections, Bildu, the electoral alliance of radical leftists and legitimate parties, presented its slate in Bilbao on Thursday.

At the top of the list are two officials who were formerly members of the outlawed Batasuna Party. Txema Azkuenaga, a lawyer, will run in the Bilbao mayoral race while Aitziber Ibaibarriaga, daughter of former Batasuna councilor Kepa Ibaibarriaga, secured the number-two spot for the May 22 elections.

Bildu includes members of the recently formed Sortu group, which was prevented from registering as a party by the Supreme Court on April 7, on evidence that it would become Basque terrorist group ETA's new political wing. On Thursday, the top court rejected an appeal from Sortu lawyers for a review of that ruling.

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Sortu has one last-ditch attempt to file an appeal, this time with the Constitutional Court, but its lawyers must do so by April 18. But many observers, including members of Sortu, believe there won't be enough time to present slates for next month's race should the ban be overturned. After the court's April 7 ruling, Sortu members quickly formed an alliance with two legitimate radical left parties - Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) and Alternatiba - to form Bildu.

Federico Trillo, the Popular Party's spokesman for judicial affairs, revealed that the opposition was in talks with Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba to seek ways to prevent Bildu from participating in next month's elections. "We are studying what is the appropriate avenue because there would be technical difficulties if we directly impugned them," Trillo said. But he blamed the Socialist government for the early release of ETA terrorist Antonio Troitiño, a mastermind of the 1986 bomb attack that killed 12 civil guards in Madrid. On Wednesday Troitiño was released from prison due to a legal loophole that allows inmates to earn credit for time served in preventive custody.

Also on Thursday, another terrorist in custody, Aitor Esnaola, led police to a hidden cache of ETA explosives.

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