Self-determination of Bilgunea

Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea (AuB) (in Basque 'Meeting point for self-determination') was the name of an electoral platform created in 2003 for the elections of the General Meetings of Álava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya, as well as for the regional elections in Navarra.

History

Shortly before the formation of this electoral group, the political party abertzale Batasuna was outlawed by virtue of the Party Law. The first electoral appointment after the illegalization were the municipal elections of May 25, 2003, which in the Basque Country coincided with the foral elections and in Navarre with the regional elections. To face these municipal elections, the local groups of Batasuna created dozens of local electoral platforms, while a large electoral platform called AuB was created as a substitute for the illegalized organization in those elections that exceeded the local level.

The meeting point for the members of AuB was intended to be the defense of the right to self-determination, as its name indicated. The platform was presented on February 14, 2003 and a month later it had obtained the necessary signatures for its participation in the elections. Its spokesman was Joxe Ramón Etxebarria.

Because the AuB candidacies included some former Batasuna leaders, as well as numerous militants and people related to that organization and even some prisoners related to ETA, the presence of AuB in the elections was challenged by the state prosecutor's office. The Supreme Court understood that the presence of Batasuna militants and leader in this candidacy demonstrated its character as a continuation of the Batasuna political party; which entered as a course for its illegalization. Subsequently, the Constitutional Court endorsed this ruling on the eve of the start of the electoral campaign.

The vast majority of the local candidacies presented by Batasuna suffered the same fate, although some were able to present themselves because they did not have former Batasuna candidates and militants on their lists. The opposite was also the case, independent local candidacies not promoted by Batasuna were outlawed as they included former candidates of this party on their lists.

From AuB a call was made to vote in the elections with some ballot papers that they made themselves. These votes were counted as null; although AuB auditors made a parallel count of those invalid votes to estimate the electoral support they had and later demand from the remaining political parties the representation that according to their criteria should have corresponded to them.

After the ban and after the elections AuB dissolved. In subsequent elections, participants in these candidacies would support electoral platforms such as Herritarren Zerrenda or Aukera Guztiak.