Spanish general election, 1979

Spanish general election, 1979
Spain
1 March 1979
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of the 218) seats in the Senate
176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Registered 26,836,490 Increase13.8%
Turnout 18,259,192 (68.0%)
Decrease10.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Adolfo Suárez Felipe González Santiago Carrillo
Party UCD PSOE PCE
Leader since 3 May 1977 13 October 1974 3 July 1960
Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid
Last election 165 seats, 34.4% 124 seats, 33.8%[lower-alpha 1] 20 seats, 9.3%
Seats won 168 121 23
Seat change Increase3 Decrease3 Increase3
Popular vote 6,268,593 5,469,813 1,938,487
Percentage 34.8% 30.4% 10.8%
Swing Increase0.4 pp Decrease3.4 pp Increase1.5 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Manuel Fraga Jordi Pujol Blas Piñar
Party CD CiU UN
Leader since 9 October 1976 17 November 1974 1979
Leader's seat Madrid Barcelona Madrid
Last election 16 seats, 8.2% 13 seats, 3.8%[lower-alpha 2] 0 seats, 0.4%
Seats won 10 8 1
Seat change Decrease6 Decrease5 Increase1
Popular vote 1,088,578 483,353 378,964
Percentage 6.0% 2.7% 2.1%
Swing Decrease2.2 pp Decrease1.1 pp Increase1.7 pp
Most voted party by autonomous community and province.
  UCD
  PSOE
  EAJ-PNV
Prime Minister before election

Adolfo Suárez
UCD

 Elected Prime Minister

Adolfo Suárez
UCD

The 1979 Spanish general election was held on Thursday, 1 March 1979, to elect the 1st Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and all 208 seats in the Senate.[1]

The Union of the Democratic Centre remained the largest party, winning 168 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 119 of the 218 seats in the Senate, as such they continued in minority government.

Overview

Electoral system

Congress of Deputies

The 350 members of the Congress of Deputies were elected in 50 multi-member districts using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. Ceuta and Melilla elected 1 member each using plurality voting. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of 2 seats, with the remaining 248 seats being allocated among the 50 provinces in proportion to their populations. Only lists polling above 3% of the total vote in each district (which includes blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

Senate

For the Senate, each of the 47 peninsular provinces was assigned 4 seats. For insular provinces, such as Baleares and Canarias, districts are the islands themselves, with the larger — Mallorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife — being assigned 3 seats each, and the smaller — Menorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma — 1 each. Ceuta and Melilla were assigned 2 seats each, for a total of 208 directly elected seats. In districts electing 4 seats, electors could vote for up to 3 candidates; in those with 2 or 3 seats, for up to 2 candidates; and for 1 candidate in single member constituencies. Electors would vote for individual candidates: those attaining the largest number of votes in each district would be elected for a 4-year term of office.

In addition, the legislative assemblies of the autonomous communities are entitled to appoint at least 1 senator each, as well as 1 senator for every million inhabitants, adding up a variable number of appointed seats to the directly-elected 208 senators.[2] This appointment usually did not take place at the same time that the general election, but when the autonomous communities held their elections.

Eligibility

Dual membership of both chambers of the Cortes or of the Cortes and regional assemblies was prohibited. Active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals were also ineligible.[3][4]

Parties and coalitions of different parties which had registered with the Electoral Commission could present lists of candidates.[4]

Results

Congress of Deputies

Overall

← Summary of the 1 March 1979 Spanish Congress of Deputies election results →
Party Vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Won +/−
Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) 6,268,593 34.84 Increase0.40 168 Increase3
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)[lower-alpha 1] 5,469,813 30.40 Decrease3.38 121 Decrease3
Communist Party of Spain (PCE) 1,938,487 10.77 Increase1.44 23 Increase3
Democratic Coalition (CD) 1,060,330 5.89 Decrease2.32 9 Decrease7
Convergence and Union (CiU)[lower-alpha 2] 483,353 2.69 Decrease1.06 8 Decrease5
National Union (UN) 378,964 2.11 Increase1.74 1 Increase1
Socialist Party of Andalusia-Andalusian Party (PSA-PA) 325,842 1.81 New 5 Increase5
Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) 296,597 1.65 Increase0.03 7 Decrease1
Party of Labour of Spain (PTE) 192,798 1.07 Increase0.40 0 ±0
People's Unity (HB) 172,110 0.96 New 3 Increase3
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (historical) (PSOE(h)) 133,869 0.74 Increase0.06 0 ±0
Workers' Revolutionary Organization (ORT) 127,517 0.71 Increase0.29 0 ±0
Republican Left of Catalonia-National Front (ERC-FN) 123,452 0.69 Decrease0.10 1 ±0
Basque Country Left (EE) 85,677 0.48 Increase0.14 1 ±0
Communist Movement-Communist Left Organization (MC-OIC) 84,856 0.47 New 0 ±0
Galician National-Popular Bloc (BNPG) 60,889 0.34 Increase0.22 0 ±0
Canarian People's Union (UPC) 58,953 0.33 New 1 Increase1
Left Bloc for National Liberation (BEAN) 56,582 0.31 New 0 ±0
Galician Unity (PG-POG-PSG) 55,555 0.31 Increase0.16 0 ±0
Republican Left (IR) 55,384 0.31 New 0 ±0
Carlist Party (PC) 50,552 0.28 Increase0.23 0 ±0
Communist Organization-Communist Unification of Spain (OCE-UCE) 47,937 0.27 New 0 ±0
Workers' Communist Party (PCT) 47,896 0.27 Increase0.24 0 ±0
Regionalist Aragonese Party (PAR) 38,042 0.21 Increase0.01 1 ±0
Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) 36,662 0.20 New 0 ±0
Basque Country Foral Union (UFV) 34,108 0.19 New 0 ±0
Authentic Spanish Falange of the JONS (FE-JONS(A)) 30,252 0.17 Decrease0.08 0 ±0
Navarrese People's Union (UPN) 28,248 0.16 New 1 Increase1
Coalition for Aragon (PSAr-PSDA) 19,220 0.11 New 0 ±0
Blank ballots 57,267 0.32 Increase0.07
Total 17,990,915 100.00 350 ±0
Valid votes 17,990,915 98.53 Decrease0.04
Invalid votes 268,277 1.47 Increase0.04
Votes cast / turnout 18,259,192 68.04 Decrease10.79
Abstentions 8,577,298 31.96 Increase10.79
Registered voters 26,836,490
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Vote share
UCD
  
 34.84%
PSOE
  
 30.40%
PCE
  
 10.77%
CD
  
 5.89%
CiU
  
 2.69%
UN
  
 2.11%
PSA-PA
  
 1.81%
EAJ-PNV
  
 1.65%
PTE
  
 1.07%
HB
  
 0.96%
ERFN
  
 0.69%
EE
  
 0.48%
C-UPC
  
 0.33%
PAR
  
 0.21%
UPN
  
 0.16%
Others
  
 5.62%
Blank ballots
  
 0.32%
Parliamentary seats
UCD
  
 48.00%
PSOE
  
 34.57%
PCE
  
 6.57%
CD
  
 2.57%
CiU
  
 2.29%
EAJ-PNV
  
 2.00%
PSA-PA
  
 1.43%
HB
  
 0.86%
UN
  
 0.29%
ERFN
  
 0.29%
EE
  
 0.29%
C-UPC
  
 0.29%
PAR
  
 0.29%
UPN
  
 0.29%

Senate

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Elected Regional Total
Union of the Democratic Centre 1181119+13
PSOE-PSC 71374+27
Basque Nationalist Party 8210+10
Convergence and Union 123+3
Democratic Coalition 303+3
Candidatura Progresista 101+1
Herri Batasuna 101+1
Republican Left of Catalonia 011+1
Agrupacíon Per l'Entesa 101+1
Independents 415–9
Invalid/blank votes513,445–––––
Total18,454,01010020810218+16
Registered voters/turnout26,836,49068.8––––
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Notes

  1. 1 2 Compared to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party+People's Socialist Party results in the 1977 election.
  2. 1 2 Compared to the Democratic Agreement for Catalonia+Democratic Union of Catalonia results in the 1977 election.

References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1817 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ "General Aspects of the Electoral System".
  3. ↑ "The Spanish Constitution of 1978".
  4. 1 2 "Law-Decree governing electoral procedures". Retrieved 2014-12-30.
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