Regional elections unlikely to end stalemate in Spain

MADRID (AP) - Residents of Spain's Basque and Galicia regions voted in regional parliamentary elections on Sunday, but with few hopes of ending the country's 9-month political stalemate and avoiding a third round of national elections in one year.

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party has been running a caretaker government for almost a year after two inconclusive rounds of national elections in December and June.

The party won the most seats in both, but lacks the votes in Parliament to form a new government.

Rajoy's party hopes a strong showing in his home region of Galicia on Sunday and the possibility of a postelection deal with the Basque Nationalist Party will strengthen its hand in Parliament.

A poor result for the Socialists in both regional elections could cause the party to change its stand and allow Rajoy to form a minority government.

But analysts are not optimistic the regional elections will end the political bickering.

"It's difficult to imagine that the Galician and Basque elections are going to change the situation at the national level," Navarra University Public Opinion Professor Manuel Martin Algarra said.

The Basque Nationalist Party is more likely to seek support from Spain's opposition Socialist party, than from the conservative Popular Party, Marin Algarra said.

He said that at the most, poor regional results for the Socialists - already reeling from their worst-ever showing in the June election, with 85 seats - may put pressure on the socialists to abstain in a future investiture vote at the national parliament and let Rajoy form a minority government.

Aside from Spain's traditional socialist and conservative parties, the business-friendly Ciudadanos and left-wing Podemos parties have sprung up in recent years, winning third and fourth place respectively in Parliament.

Spain never has had a coalition government, and the country's main political parties are struggling with the idea of negotiating deals in an arena with new political powers.

Parliament has until Oct. 31 to form a government or a third round of national elections will need to be called.