Under the
1979 Statute of Autonomy, the
Basque Parliament was the
unicameral legislature of the
homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in
devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a
lehendakari. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by
national law provisions.
Date The term of the Basque Parliament expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was
dissolved earlier. The election
decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country (BOPV), with
election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication. The
previous election was held on 12 July 2020, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 12 July 2024. The election decree was required to be published in the BOPV no later than 18 June 2024, setting the latest possible date for election day on 11 August 2024. The lehendakari had the prerogative to dissolve the Basque Parliament at any given time and call a
snap election, provided that no
motion of no confidence was in process. In the event of an
investiture process failing to elect a lehendakari within a sixty-day period from the Parliament's reconvening, the chamber was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called. Following the announcement by
Galician president Alfonso Rueda of a
snap election in Galicia for 18 February 2024, Urkullu was asked whether he would follow suit and make both elections be held simultaneously—as it had been the case since
2009. To this, he simply stated that "the Basque Country is not Galicia", distancing himself from Rueda's decision. Instead, it was expected that the Basque election would most likely be held in March or April 2024, to allow for more time to approve a final set of bills in the Basque Parliament as well as to avoid a simultaneous call with the
European Parliament election on 9 June. The Basque Parliament was officially dissolved on 27 February 2024 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOPV, setting election day for 21 April.
Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on
universal suffrage, comprising all
Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Basque Country and with full
political rights, provided that they had not been
deprived of the right to vote by a final
sentence. Amendments in 2022 abolished the "begged" voting system (), under which
non-resident citizens were required to
apply for voting. The expat vote system was attributed responsibility for a major decrease in the turnout of Spaniards abroad during the years it was in force. The Basque Parliament had 75 seats. All were elected in three
multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the
provinces of
Álava,
Biscay and
Gipuzkoa, each of which was assigned a fixed number of 25 seats to provide for an equal parliamentary representation of the three provinces—using the
D'Hondt method and
closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-
threshold of valid votes (including
blank ballots) in each constituency. The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher
effective threshold depending on
district magnitude and vote distribution. The law did not provide for
by-elections to fill
vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the
party lists or, when required, by designated
substitutes.
Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the
parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution. ==Parties and candidates==