Madrid, May 4, SPA -- Magistrates at Spain's Supreme Court were todaymulling over whether to ban hundreds of candidates from contestingthe May 27 local elections in the northern Basque region on thegrounds that their parties were fronts for the outlawed separatistparty Batasuna. The government and state prosecutors have called for a ban on 133lists of candidates - nearly half - of the little-known BasqueNationalist Action (ANV) which, they argued, had been infiltrated byBatasuna, reported dpa. The Supreme Court was also to decide on a possible ban on all thecandidates of Abertzale Sozialistak, another alleged Batasuna front,and several independent candidates. The opposition conservatives accuse the Socialist government ofallowing the return of Batasuna by not banning all the ANVcandidates. The government says there is no sufficient evidence forsuch a move.-- SPA www.spa.gov.sa/446695