General Assembly of Álava

General Assemblies of Álava Arabako Batzar Nagusiak (Basque) Juntas Generales de Álava (Spanish)
Type
Type	Spanish regional legislature
Houses	Unicameral
Leadership
President	Irma Basterra, EAJ-PNV since 19 June 2023
Structure
Seats	51
Political groups	Government (24)   EAJ-PNV (15)   PSE–EE (9) Opposition (27)   EH Bildu (14)   PP (9)   Elkarrekin Podemos (3)   Vox (1)
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation, D'Hondt method
Last election	28 May 2023
Meeting place
Province Palace, Vitoria-Gasteiz
Website
www.jjggalava.eus

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.

Name		Term of office			Legislature (election)	Political Party
		Took office	Left office	Days
	Emilio Guevara Saleta	7 May 1979	16 February 1980	285	I (1979)	Basque Nationalist Party
	Francisco José Ormazábal Zamakona	16 February 1980	23 May 1983	2418
		24 May 1983	30 September 1986		II (1983)
	Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu	30 September 1986	3 July 1987	1730
		3 July 1987	26 June 1991		III (1987)
	Juan Pastor Álvarez	17 June 1991	22 June 1995	1466	IV (1991)	Socialist Party of the Basque Country
	José Manuel López de Juan Abad	22 June 1995	3 April 1999	1381	V (1995)	Independent
	Mikel Martínez Martínez de Lizarduy	12 April 1999	6 July 1999	85		Basque Nationalist Party
	Xesqui Castañer López	6 July 1999	13 June 2003	1438	VI (1999)	Socialist Party of the Basque Country–Basque Country Left
	María Teresa Rodríguez Barahona	13 June 2003	22 June 2007	1470	VII (2003)
	Juan Antonio Zárate Pérez de Arrilucea	20 June 2007	15 June 2011	2920	VIII (2007)	People's Party of the Basque Country
		15 June 2011	18 June 2015		IX (2011)
	Pedro Ignacio Elósegui González de Gamarra	18 June 2015	14 June 2019	2923	X (2015)	Basque Nationalist Party
		14 June 2019	19 June 2023		XI (2019)
	Irma María Basterra Ugarriza	19 June 2023	Incumbent	558	XII (2023)

Results of the elections to the General Assembly of Álava

Members in the General Assembly of Álava
Key to parties   HB   EH   EAE/ANV   Bildu   EH Bildu   IU/EB   EB–B   Irabazi   Podemos   Elkarrekin Podemos   EE   PSE   PSE–EE   EA   EAJ-PNV   PNV–EA   UCD   CDS   Cs   CP   AP   PP   UA   Vox   Independent
Election	Distribution	General Deputy
1979	7 10 26 14	Emilio Guevara (EAJ-PNV)
1983	4 1 14 23 9	Juan María Ollora (EAJ-PNV)
1987	8 3 11 12 10 3 4	Fernando Buesa (PSE)
1991	7 2 11 3 14 3 11	Alberto Ansola (EAJ-PNV)
1995	4 3 7 4 15 9 9	Félix Ormazabal (EAJ-PNV)
1999	6 2 9 16 16 2	Ramón Rabanera (PP)
2003	3 12 19 16 1
2007	4 2 14 2 14 15	Xabier Agirre (EAJ-PNV)
2011	11 2 9 13 16	Javier de Andrés (PP)
2015	11 1 8 5 13 1 12	Ramiro González (EAJ-PNV)
2019	12 4 10 17 8
2023	14 3 9 15 9 1

Sources

• Official website
• All members of the General Assembly