Elections in Spain

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    Elections in Spain encompass four different types: general elections,

    Senate utilizes the plurality system
    .

    General elections

    Main article: General elections in Spain
    Evolution of Spanish vote for Congress of Deputies from 1975 to 2019.

    General elections are elections held for the national legislature, which is called in Spain

    Senate. The Congress and Senate usually serve concurrent terms that run for a maximum of four years. However, the Prime Minister
    has the prerogative to dissolve both Houses at any given time either jointly or separately.

    Congress of Deputies

    The Congress is made out of 350 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term of office. Each one of Spain's fifty provinces is a constituency entitled to an initial minimum of two seats; the cities of Ceuta and Melilla elect one member each. The remaining 248 seats are allocated among the fifty provinces in proportion to their populations. Parties, federations, coalitions and agrupaciones de electores (electors' groups) may present candidates or lists of candidates. The lists are closed, so electors may not choose individual candidates in, or alter the order of, such lists. Electors cast a ballot for a single list, or for a single candidate in Ceuta and Melilla.

    The seats in each constituency are apportioned according to the

    first-past-the-post method, under which the candidate obtaining the largest number of votes in the constituency is elected.[1]

    Seat allocation in Congress

    To illustrate the functioning of the system, the allocation of seats in the three provinces of the Self-Governing or Autonomous Community of

    Zaragoza - for the June 1993 general election is presented here in detail. At the time, Zaragoza province had seven seats in Congress, while both Huesca and Teruel had three.[2]

    In Zaragoza province, only four tickets, namely the

    Popular Party (PP), the Aragonese Party (PAR) and the United Left
    (IU) won at least three percent of the valid votes cast in the election - including blank ballots - and were thus entitled to participate in the allocation of constituency seats. The tickets were sorted by number of votes from top to bottom, and the votes polled by each of these were then divided by 1, 2, 3, and so on until the number of seats to be allocated was reached, as detailed below:

    Division PSOE PP PAR IU
    1 174,061 172,753 108,690 60,074
    2 87,030 86,376 54,345 30,037
    3 58,020 57,584 36,230 20,024
    4 43,515 43,188 27,172 15,018
    5 34,812 34,550 21,738 12,014
    6 29,010 28,792 18,115 10,012
    7 24,865 24,679 15,527 8,582
    Seats 3 2 1 1

    Seats were then awarded to the tickets obtaining the largest quotients or averages (shown in bold). As indicated, the PSOE won three seats, the PP two, the PAR one and IU one. The seats won by each ticket were awarded to the candidates included therein, according to their ranking on the lists: therefore, the first three candidates on the PSOE list were elected to Congress, as were the first two candidates on the PP list and the candidates at the top of the PAR and IU lists, respectively.

    Meanwhile, the results of the election in Huesca province were as follows:

    Division PSOE PP PAR IU
    1 50,720 43,059 23,784 9,756
    2 25,360 21,529 11,892 4,878
    3 16,906 14,353 7,928 3,252
    Seats 2 1 0 0

    The effective representation threshold in Huesca was 25,360 votes, or 19.0% of the valid vote.

    Finally, the outcome of the election in Teruel was the following:

    Division PSOE PP PAR IU
    1 36,327 34,293 12,070 3,990
    2 18,163 17,146 6,035 1,995
    3 12,109 11,431 4,023 1,330
    Seats 2 1 0 0

    The effective representation threshold in Teruel was 18,163 votes, or 20.2% of the valid vote.

    Having concluded the allocation of Congress seats in the three Aragón constituencies, the following peculiarities stand out:

    1. The effective representation threshold in each province was substantially larger than the three percent barrier set forth by law: in all three constituencies, the seat apportionment would have been the same regardless of the statutory threshold.
    2. The number of votes required to attain a seat in Zaragoza province - the largest of three constituencies - was substantially higher than the amount required to that end in Huesca or in Teruel.
    3. The proportional allocation of seats in each constituency appeared to favor the major parties in general and specifically the majority party.

    Senate

    The system for electing the Senate was first used in 1979, though with regard to the provinces the system is unchanged since 1977. Senators are elected directly from the provinces and indirectly from the

    autonomous communities
    ; currently, there are 264 senators, 208 directly elected and 56 indirectly elected.

    In the provinces, a majoritarian

    partial block voting system is used. All peninsular provinces elect four senators each; the insular provinces (Balearic and Canary
    Islands) elect one or three senators per island, and Ceuta and Melilla elect two senators each. Parties nominate three candidates; each voter has three votes (fewer in those constituencies electing fewer senators) and votes for candidates by name, the only instance of personal voting in Spanish national elections. The usual outcome is three senators for the party with the most votes, and one senator for the runner-up, except in very close races.

    The autonomous communities receive one senator, plus one for each million inhabitants. They are entitled to determine how they choose their senators but are generally elected by the legislature of the respective community in proportion to its party composition.

    Election results 1977–2023

    Summary of Spanish elections for the Congress of Deputies, 1977–2023
    Election UCD[a] PSOE PP[b] IU[c] CDC[d] PNV ERC[e] BNG[f] EHB[g] CDS[h] CC[i] UPyD Cs Com. Pod.[j] Vox MP
    Sumar
    1977 34.4 29.3 8.3 9.3 2.8 1.7 0.8 0.1 0.2
    1979 34.8 30.4 6.1 10.8 1.7 1.6 0.7 0.3 1.0
    1982 6.8 48.1 26.4 4.0 3.7 1.9 0.7 0.2 1.0 2.9
    1986 Dissolved 44.1 26.0 4.6 5.0 1.5 0.4 0.1 1.1 9.2 0.3
    1989 39.6 25.8 9.1 5.0 1.2 0.4 0.2 1.1 7.9 0.3
    1993 38.8 34.8 9.6 4.9 1.2 0.8 0.5 0.9 1.8 0.9
    1996 37.6 38.8 10.5 4.6 1.3 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.2 0.9
    2000 34.2 44.5 5.4 4.2 1.5 0.8 1.3 Boycotted 0.1 1.1
    2004 42.6 37.7 5.0 3.2 1.6 2.5 0.8 Banned 0.1 0.9
    2008 43.9 39.9 3.8 3.0 1.2 1.2 0.8 0.0 0.7 1.2 0.2
    2011 28.8 44.6 6.9 4.2 1.3 1.1 0.8 1.4 Dissolved 0.6 4.7 did not run 0.5
    2015 22.0 28.7 3.7 2.2 1.2 2.4 0.3 0.9 0.3 0.6 13.9 [k] 20.7 0.2
    2016 22.6 33.0 [k] 2.0 1.2 2.6 0.2 0.8 0.3 0.2 13.1 [k] 21.2 0.2
    Apr. 2019 28.7 16.7 [l] 1.9 1.5 3.9 0.4 1.0 0.5 did not run 15.9 0.7 14.3 10.3
    Nov. 2019 28.0 20.8 [l] 2.2 1.6 3.6 0.5 1.2 0.5 [m] 6.8 [n] 12.9 15.1 2.4
    2023 31.7 33.1 [o] 1.6 1.1 1.9 0.6 1.4 0.5 Dissolved did not run [o] [o] 12.4 [o] 12.3

    Regional elections

    Elections to the

    unicameral parliaments of the autonomous communities of Spain are held every four years. Most of the seventeen autonomous parliaments elections take place the same day, the fourth Sunday of May of the year before a leap year; the last election was held on 28 May 2023
    . Despite this, not all the regions celebrate elections at the same time due to the power of the regional presidents to call early elections if necessary.

    Local elections

    Elections in the municipalities take place in all the country in the same day as the regional elections, the fourth Sunday of May of the year before a leap year. Last time was 28 May 2023.

    Elections to the European Parliament

    Referendums

    Electoral procedures

    The laws regulating the conduct and administration of elections are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General.[3]) Under this law, the elections are supervised by the Electoral Commission (Junta Electoral), a permanent body composed of eight Supreme Court judges and five political scientists or sociologists appointed by the Congress of Deputies. The Electoral commission is supported in its work by the Interior Ministry. On election day, polling stations are run by electoral boards which consist of groups of citizens selected by lottery.[4]

    The format of the

    recounts are impossible.[5]

    See also

    References

    1. ^ "General Aspects of the Electoral System". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
    2. ^ "Allocation of Seats in Congress". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
    3. ^ "Law governing electoral procedures". Retrieved 6 March 2011.
    4. ^ "OSCE observers task force report on 2008 Spanish election" (PDF). Organisation for security and cooperation in Europe OSCE. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
    5. ^ "OSCE observers task force report on 2004 Spanish election" (PDF). Organisation for security and cooperation in Europe, OSCE. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2008.

    Notes

    1. ^ Dissolved in 1983.
    2. AP–PDP 1982, CP
      1986.
    3. ^ PCE 1977–1982.
    4. ^ PDC 1977, CiU 1979–2011, DiL 2015, JxCat–Junts 2019, Junts 2023.
    5. ^ EC–FED 1977, ERC–CatSí 2011–2016, ERC–Sobiranistes 2019.
    6. ^ BNPG 1977–1979, Galician Nationalist Bloc–Galician Socialist Party 1982, Nós 2015–2016.
    7. ^ ESB-PSV 1977, HB 1979–1996, EH 2000, Amaiur 2011, EH Bildu 2015–2019.
    8. ^ Merged into PP in 2006, dissenters founded CDL which was merged into Cs in 2014.
    9. ^ AIC 1986–1989, CC–PNC 2008–2019.
    10. Unidos Podemos 2015–2016, Unidas Podemos
      2019.
    11. ^
      Unidos Podemos
      .
    12. ^ a b Within Unidas Podemos.
    13. ^ Within Ciudadanos.
    14. ^ Within Más País.
    15. ^
      Sumar
      .

    External links

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