A LANDSLIDE victory for the right-wing Partido Popular (PP) means radical changes in town halls and regional governments throughout the country.

Although the full count is not over, the PP has netted an average of 47 per cent of the votes in all regions so far.

Galicia, Andalucía, the Basque Country and Catalunya are still being counted.

Only Asturias and Navarra do not now have PP governments, the regional elections here having been won by the FAC and the UPN respectively.

In terms of local elections – by province – only Barcelona, Lleida, Tarragona, Pamplona, Soria, Cuenca, Guipúzcoa (of which San Sebastián is the capital) Toledo and Vizcaya (of which Bilbao is the capital) did not see the PP leading, meaning that the party received the majority vote in 43 out of Spain's 52 provinces.

This historic landslide on the part of the PP is thought to be a response to the recession and poor state of the job market.

In terms of regions, Francisco Camps continues as president of the Comunidad Valenciana, and Esperanza Aguirre as leader of the Comunidad de Madrid.

The 2011 elections saw 550,000 blank votes – 2.54 per cent of those participating – the highest in Spain's  history and believed to be an act of protest.

Also this year, 800,000 youngsters who have turned 18 since 2007 were able to vote for the first time.

Non-Spaniards are only able to vote in their local town elections, not in the regional ones, and will not be able to vote in the general elections in 2012.

Despite the PP's sweeping the board, Spain's president and socialist leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – who announced recently he would not be standing again next year – has refused to stand down and bring forward next year's elections.