Huesca (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

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Location of Huesca electoral district in Spain
Location of Huesca electoral district in Spain

Huesca is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciónes) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is one of the three electoral districts which correspond to the provinces of Aragon. Huesca is the largest municipality although it only has 38,000 voters. There are no other municipalities with electorates over 10,000. Like the other Aragonese provinces Teruel and Zaragoza, Huesca has been a political bellwether as the party that has won most seats in the district has gone on to form the government.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution [1] the boundaries must be the same as the province of Huesca and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

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[edit] Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from Regional Assemblies if successfully elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible. [2]

[edit] Number of members

From the 1977 General Election onwards Huesca has returned three members.

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population. [3] These laws are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General) The practical effect of this has been to overrepreseent smaller provinces like Huesca at the expense of larger provinces. Huesca had a ratio of 58,991 voters per deputy in 2004,[4] a figure far below the Spanish average of 98,777 voters per deputy.

[edit] Summary of seats won 1977–2008

1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD) 2 2
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2
People's Party (PP) 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1

Note: Seats shown for the PP include seats won by their predecessors, the Popular Alliance and Popular Coalition before 1989. They ran in an electoral alliance with the Aragonese Party (Partido Aragonés) in 1982 and 1996.

[edit] Results

[edit] 2004 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Huesca.
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 61,500 45.66 2
People's Party (Partido Popular) 50,493 35.55 1
Aragonese Council (Chunta Aragonesista) 8,629 6.41 0
Aragonese Party (Partido Aragonés) 6,782 5.04 0
United Left-Greens 3,650 2.71 0
Others 1,006 0.80 0

Source: [5]

[edit] 2000 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 12 March 2000 Congress of Deputies election results in Huesca.
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 56,610 45.13 2
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 46,490 37.06 1
Aragonese Party (Partido Aragonés) 8,207 6.54 0
Aragonese Council (Chunta Aragonesista) 6,926 5.52 0
United Left 3,898 3.11 0
Others 1,176 0.90 0

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spanish Constitution
  2. ^ Spanish Constitution
  3. ^ General features of Spanish electoral system
  4. ^ Huesca election result 2004
  5. ^ Interior ministry link to election results
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Electoral districts of the Spanish Congress of Deputies