Zaragoza (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

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Location of Zaragoza electoral district in Spain
Location of Zaragoza electoral district in Spain

Zaragoza 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. Zaragoza is by far the largest municipality with over 500,000 voters (70% of the total electorate.) There are no other municipalities with electorates over 15,000. Like its Aragonese neighbour Teruel, Zaragoza 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 Zaragoza 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 Zaragoza returned eight members. At the 1989 General Election it lost a seat and has returned seven members since then.

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 at the expense of larger provinces. Zaragoza had a ratio of 103,831 voters per deputy in 2004,[4] a figure slightly above the Spanish average of 98,777 voters per deputy but far ahead of the ratio of 38,714 voters per deputy in Teruel [5]

[edit] Summary of seats won 1977–2008

1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD) 3 4
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 3 3 5 4 3 3 3 2 3 4
Popular Socialist Party (PSP) 1
People's Party (PP) 3 2 2 2 4 4 3 3
Independent / Aragonese Party (PAR) 1 1 1 1 1
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 1
United Left (IU) 1 1
Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) 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. The Aragonese party did not exist in 1977 and the candidate who was elected for them in 1979 was elected as an Independent Aragonese Centre Candidate {Candidatura Aragonesa Independiente de centro (CAIC) } in 1977.

[edit] Results

The election saw PP vote drop by 12.1%, this was the third biggest drop overall in the PP vote in any district. The PSOE vote grew by 11.1%. Consequently the swing from PP to PSOE was 11.6% - the largest swing of the election between the two main parties.

[edit] 2004 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Zaragoza.
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 224,776 40.26 3
People's Party (Partido Popular) 198,480 35.55 3
Aragonese Council (Chunta Aragonesista) 81,160 14.54 1 José Antonio Labordeta
Aragonese Party (Partido Aragonés) 22,758 4.08 0
United Left-Greens 15,672 2.81 0
Others 3,693 0.70 0

Source: [6]

[edit] 2000 General Election

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 12 March 2000 Congress of Deputies election results in Teruel.
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 244,403 47.63 4
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 149,672 29.17 2
Aragonese Council (Chunta Aragonesista) 65,599 12.78 1 José Antonio Labordeta
Aragonese Party (Partido Aragonés) 22,382 4.36 0
United Left 19,059 3.71 0
Others 4,906 1.00 0

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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