Melilla (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

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Location of Melilla electoral district.
Location of Melilla electoral district.

Melilla 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 has the smallest electorate of all the 52 districts [1] and together with the other African enclave of Ceuta it is one of just two single member districts in Congress.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68.2 of the Spanish constitution [2] the constituency must be a single member district and the boundaries must be the same as the Autonomous City of Melilla 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. Officially, the electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. The fact that Melilla is a single member district means that in practice it uses the same first past the post system used in many anglophone countries like the United Kingdom and USA.

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. [3]

[edit] Results

Generally the parties of the centre right have won in Melilla. The Union of the Democratic Centre won the first two elections in 1977 and 1979, but the seat was gained by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) during their landslide victory of 1982. The Coalición Popular and their successors the Partido Popular (PP) held the seat in 1986 and 1989. However in 1993, in a surprise result, the PSOE regained the seat in an election where they lost seats overall. The PP regained the seat in 1996 and have held it since then.

A regional party, the Melillense Local Bloc polled almost a quarter of the votes in the 2000 election and took second place. Their absence in 2004, resulted in the PSOE vote increasing by 21% their biggest increase in all the 52 Spanish districts. For similar reasons it was one of only two districts where the PP vote rose (Ceuta was the only other instance.)

[edit] 2004 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Melilla.
Parties and alliances Votes % Member elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 14,856 54.60 Antonio Gutiérrez Molina
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 11,273 41.43
United Left 229 0.84
Others 414 1.50

Source: [4]

[edit] 2000 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 12 March 2000 Congress of Deputies election results in Melilla.
Parties and alliances Votes % Member elected
People's Party (Partido Popular)-Melillense People's Union 13,078 49.80 Antonio Gutiérrez Molina
Melillense Local Bloc (Bloque Localista de Melilla) 6,514 24.81
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 5,363 20.42
United Left 397 1.51
Others 256 1.40

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Melilla 2004 electorate
  2. ^ Spanish Constitution
  3. ^ Spanish Constitution
  4. ^ Interior ministry link to election results
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Electoral districts of the Spanish Congress of Deputies