Asturian parliamentary election, 1983

Asturian parliamentary election, 1983
Asturias
8 May 1983

All 45 seats in the Asturian General Junta
23 seats needed for a majority
Registered 873,690
Turnout 568,271 (65.0%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Pedro de Silva Francisco Álvarez Cascos Francisco Javier Suárez
Party PSOE CP PCE
Leader since 15 March 1983 1983 1983
Seats won 26 14 5
Popular vote 293,320 170,654 62,855
Percentage 52.0% 30.2% 11.1%

President before election

Rafael Fernández
PSOE

Elected President

Pedro de Silva
PSOE

The 1983 Asturian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st General Junta of the Principality of Asturias, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias. At stake were all 45 seats in the General Junta, determining the President of the Principality of Asturias.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won the election with a comfortable absolute majority of 26 out of 45 seats and 52.0% of the vote. The People's Coalition, headed by the conservative People's Alliance, became the second political force and the main opposition party in the General Junta with 14 seats and 30.2%. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) won 5 seats and 11.1%.

As a result of the election, Socialist Pedro de Silva replaced Rafael Fernández as President of Asturias, becoming the first democratically elected head of the regional government.

Electoral system

The 45 members of the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias were elected in 3 multi-member districts using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Unlike other regions, districts did not coincide with provincial limits, being determined by law as such:

As the community had not passed an electoral law of its own at the time, the electoral system came regulated under Decree 57/1983, which distributed the General Junta seats as follows: Central District (32), Eastern District (5) and Western District (8).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of the total vote in each district (which includes blank ballotsfor none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.[1]

Opinion polls

Seats

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 23 seats were required for an absolute majority in the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias.

Results

Overall

Summary of the 8 May 1983 Asturian General Junta election results
Party Vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Won +/−
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 293,320 51.96 26
People's Coalition (AP-PDP-UL) 170,654 30.23 14
Communist Party of Spain (PCE) 62,855 11.13 5
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 19,495 3.45 0
Workers' Socialist Party (PST) 4,703 0.83 0
PRUC-Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PRUC-PCPE) 4,226 0.75 0
Communist Movement-Revolutionary Communist League (MC-LCR) 2,833 0.50 0
Asturian Nationalist Ensame (ENA) 2,505 0.44 0
People's Fight Coalition (CLP) 867 0.15 0
Youth Students and Workers (MEyT) 764 0.14 0
Blank ballots 2,298 0.41
Total 564,520 100.00 45
Valid votes 564,520 99.34
Invalid votes 3,751 0.66
Votes cast / turnout 568,271 65.04
Abstentions 305,419 34.96
Registered voters 873,690
Source(s):
Vote share
PSOE
 
51.96%
AP-PDP-UL
 
30.23%
PCE
 
11.13%
CDS
 
3.45%
Others
 
2.82%
Blank ballots
 
0.41%
Parliamentary seats
PSOE
 
57.78%
AP-PDP-UL
 
31.11%
PCE
 
11.11%

Results by district

Election results by district.

References