Aragonese regional election, 2003

Aragonese regional election, 2003

25 May 2003
All 67 seats in the Cortes of Aragon 34 seats needed for a majority
Registered	1,019,644 2.0%
Turnout	717,457 (70.4%) 4.6 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Marcelino Iglesias Gustavo Alcalde Chesús Bernal Party PSOE PP CHA Leader since 15 February 1995 18 May 2001 29 June 1986 Leader's seat Zaragoza Zaragoza Zaragoza Last election 23 seats, 30.8% 28 seats, 38.2% 5 seats, 11.0% Seats won 27 22 9 Seat change 4 6 4 Popular vote 270,468 219,058 97,763 Percentage 37.9% 30.7% 13.7% Swing 7.1 pp 7.5 pp 2.7 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader José Ángel Biel Adolfo Barrena Party PAR IU Leader since 2 June 2000 May 2002 Leader's seat Teruel Zaragoza Last election 10 seats, 13.3% 1 seat, 3.9% Seats won 8 1 Seat change 2 0 Popular vote 79,670 21,795 Percentage 11.2% 3.1% Swing 2.1 pp 0.8 pp
Constituency results map for the Cortes of Aragon
President before election Marcelino Iglesias PSOE Elected President Marcelino Iglesias PSOE

The 2003 Aragonese regional election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th Cortes of the Autonomous Community of Aragon. All 67 seats in the Cortes were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

The election saw the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had ruled Aragon since the previous election, becoming the largest party in the Courts for the first time since the 1991 election. The PSOE gains came at the expense of the People's Party (PP), which saw a drop of 7 points on its vote share. The Aragonese Union (CHA) made gains and overtook the Aragonese Party (PAR) as the third largest party in the Courts. For the PAR, this was the fourth consecutive election where it lost ground. United Left (IU) held its single seat, albeit with a slightly reduced vote share.

The PSOE and PAR maintained the coalition administration formed after the previous election. As a result, Marcelino Iglesias was re-elected as President of Aragon.

Electoral system

The electoral system for the Cortes of Aragon was regulated under the Autonomous Community of Aragon Electoral Law 2/1987 and, subsidiarily, under the general provisions of the General Electoral System Organic Law 5/1985 (LOREG). The Cortes was composed of 67 seats, allocated to constituencies corresponding to the provinces of Aragon. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of 13 seats, with the remaining 28 allocated in proportion to the provincial populations on the condition that the inhabitants/seat ratio in the most populated province did not exceed 2.75 times that of the less populated one—otherwise, the size of most populated district would be limited to such a ratio—. Deputies were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 3% of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution.^[1][2]

Under the LOREG and the Aragonese electoral law, elections were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.^[1][2] A 1996 amendment to the 1982 Statute of Autonomy of Aragon granted the President of the Deputation of Aragon the prerogative to dissolve the Assembly and call a snap election, provided that no motion of censure process was ongoing and some time requirements were met—namely, that dissolution did not occur during the first period of sessions, nor before one year had passed since the previous dissolution or after three years into the parliamentary term—. Additionally, the chamber's dissolution was to be automatically triggered if an investiture process failed to elect a regional President within a two-month period from the first ballot. Any snap election held as a result of these circumstances would not alter the period to the next ordinary election, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of the previous four-year parliamentary term.^[3][4]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Cortes of Aragon election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	270,468	37.94	+7.13	27	+4
	People's Party (PP)	219,058	30.73	–7.48	22	–6
	Aragonese Union (CHA)	97,763	13.71	+2.67	9	+4
	Aragonese Party (PAR)	79,670	11.18	–2.07	8	–2
	United Left of Aragon (IU)	21,795	3.06	–0.80	1	±0

Distribution by constituency

References

Elections in Aragon
Regional elections	1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 next
General elections	1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008 2011 2015 2016 next
European Parliament elections	1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 next