The conservative party of Manuel Fraga, 82, the last surviving Spanish politician of General Francisco Franco's regime, was close to losing its majority in a Spanish regional election Sunday but the final result is likely to depend on emigrants' votes.
With 99 percent of votes in Galicia counted, Fraga's Popular Party was set to win 37 seats, down from 41 and one short of a 38-majority in the 75-seat parliament of Galicia, in northwestern Spain.
The Socialist Party, under Emilio Perez Tourino, would garner 25 seats, up from 17, and the Nationalist Galician Bloc, under Anxo Quintana, would plunge from 17 to 13, the results indicated.
But the result was so close that the final balance of power was not immediately clear.
"I'm happy with the result because the Popular Party is the most voted for party in Galicia," Fraga told reporters.
He said he intended leading the opposition should his party fail to achieve a majority.
Popular Party spokesman Angel Acebes sung his group's praise: "now we have to wait for the emigrant vote from which we have always had a good result and on which the 38th seat depends," said Popular Party spokesman Angel Acebes who sung his group's praise.
The emigrant vote is unlikely to be known before June 27
As it stands, the Socialists and Nationalists could form a majority and remove Fraga, as they have indicated they would do.
But of the more than 2.5 million people eligible to vote in the elections, 12 percent live abroad, mostly in Latin America and their votes may prove crucial in the final tally. To date the emigrant has generally favored the Popular Party.
"It's true that the emigrant vote has always been an ace for the Popular Party," popular Galician novelist Manuel Rivas told CCN+ Television.
"But either way the election shows things have changed in Galicia, the warning has been served and the Popular Party will not be able to celebrate this with fireworks," he said.
Exit polls had indicated that Fraga would lose the majority he has held since 1990.
For many Spaniards, Fraga is a political dinosaur left over from Spain's right-wing past. But the election showed the ever-outspoken political icon who served as Franco's information minister and ambassador to Britain still has a lot of support in his staunchly conservative Galicia, home to both him and to the late dictator who ruled Spain between 1939 and 1975.
Failure to maintain the presidency in Galicia would be a serious blow for the Popular Party, which is still reeling from a shock defeat at the hand of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists in national elections in March last year that ended their eight-year run in office.
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