Voting booths open in the Basque Country and Navarre

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• More than 2,200,000 Basques and Navarrans go to the polls Sunday

A total of 2,263,788 people are eligible to vote Sunday in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and Navarre to elect their representatives in the town halls, the General Assemblies of Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia and the Parliament of Navarre.

More than 1,100 voting booths opened at Sunday's 9 a.m. (0700GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1800GMT). Near-to-final results are expected by 10 p.m. (2000GMT)

The representatives elected today will take the oath of office next June 16th in the case of the town halls and next June 20th in the case of the Parliament of Navarre.

Who do citizens elect?

Citizens of the Autonomous Community of the Basque country elect 2,597 town and city councilors in 251 town and cities. They also elect the 51 representatives of the General Assemblies of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.

In Navarre at stake are the town halls, the Council of Navarra and the Parliament of Navarre, as well as its president.

White and sepia envelopes

Voters in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country will cast their ballot in two different envelopes: one white-colored to elect the representatives in the town halls and another one sepia-colored to elect the representative in the General Assemblies.

In Navarre, however, they are three different colors: white for the town halls, sepia for the parliament and blue for the Council of Navarre.

Election nationwide

At stake on Sunday are town halls nationwide and governments in all of Spain's 17 regions except Catalonia, the Basque region, Andalusia and Galicia. Polls suggest there will be little change with the two main parties retaining their respective strongholds and perhaps just two regions possibly registering slight swings.

Some 35 million Spaniards are eligible to vote. However, with both sides taking Sunday's ballot as something of a primary for general elections due next year, the party which obtains most votes will hail victory loudly.

Past polls indicate that local election winners invariably win ensuing general elections.