Catalan regional election, 1984

Catalan regional election, 1984

29 April 1984
All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	4,494,340 1.4%
Turnout	2,892,486 (64.4%) 3.0 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jordi Pujol Raimon Obiols Eduard Bueno Party CiU PSC–PSOE AP–PDP–UL Leader since 17 November 1974 12 July 1983 1983 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 43 seats, 27.8% 33 seats, 22.4% 0 seats, 2.4% Seats won 72 41 11 Seat change 29 8 11 Popular vote 1,346,729 866,281 221,601 Percentage 46.8% 30.1% 7.7% Swing 19.0 pp 7.7 pp 5.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Antoni Gutiérrez Heribert Barrera Party PSUC ERC Leader since 1982 1980 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Last election 25 seats, 18.8% 14 seats, 8.9% Seats won 6 5 Seat change 19 9 Popular vote 160,581 126,943 Percentage 5.6% 4.4% Swing 13.2 pp 4.5 pp
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Catalonia
President before election Jordi Pujol CiU Elected President Jordi Pujol CiU

The 1984 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 29 April 1984, to elect the 2nd Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview

Electoral system

The Parliament of Catalonia was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, having legislative power in matters of regional competence as underlined by the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to grant or revoke confidence from a President of the Generalitat.^[1] Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all nationals over eighteen, registered in Catalonia and in full enjoyment of all political rights entitled to vote.

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 3 per 100 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. Additionally, the use of the D'Hondt method might result in an effective threshold over three percent, dependant on the district magnitude.^[2] Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona. Each constituency was allocated a fixed number of seats: 85 for Barcelona, 17 for Gerona, 15 for Lérida and 18 for Tarragona.^[1][3]

The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure at least the signature of 0.1 per 100 of the electors entered in electoral register of the constituency for which they were seeking election—needing to secure, in any case, the signature of 500 electors—. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days from the election call.^[4]

Election date

Article 31 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979 established that the term of the Parliament expired four years from the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. Article 47 of the Parliament, President and Executive Council of the Generalitat Law of 1982 required for the President of the Generalitat to call an election fifteen days prior to the date of expiry of Parliament, with election day taking place within sixty days after the call. The previous election was held on 20 March 1980, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 20 March 1984. The election was required to be called no later than 5 March 1984, with it taking place on the sixtieth day from the call, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament at Friday, 4 May 1984.^[1]

Additionally, under Article 54 of the Law the Parliament was to be dissolved and a snap election called if an investiture process failed to elect a regional President within a two-month period from the first ballot.^[3]

Parties and leaders

Opinion polls

Individual poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If that date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance of a tie, the figures with the highest percentages are shaded. in the case of seat projections, they are displayed in bold and in a different font. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout							EEC	Lead
1984 regional election	29 Apr 1984	N/A	64.4	46.8 72	30.1 41	5.6 6	–	4.4 5	7.7 11	1.2 0	16.7
Iope–Etmar/El Periódico[p 1]	12–17 Apr 1984	2,300	66–72	42.3 64	30.6 42	5.3 5	–	6.0 8	11.3 16	–	11.7
Sofemasa/La Vanguardia[lower-roman 1][p 2][p 3][p 4]	11–13 Apr 1984	2,400	?	44.6 66/68	32.1 44/46	6.4 7/8	–	4.6 6	7.2 9/10	2.1 0/1	12.5
Metra Seis/El País[p 5][p 6][p 4]	9–12 Apr 1984	2,700	64	36.9 56/58	32.0 43/45	8.6 9/11	–	7.3 9/10	9.9 13/14	–	4.9
Aresco/ABC[p 7][p 8]	9–12 Mar 1984	2,200	?	41.0 61	29.1 42	6.9 6	–	6.3 6	13.9 20	–	11.9
Sofemasa/La Vanguardia[lower-roman 1][p 9][p 10][p 4]	21–23 Mar 1984	2,400	?	33.7 51/54	38.8 49/52	8.2 9/11	–	6.2 8/10	8.8 12/13	–	5.1
1983 local elections	8 May 1983	N/A	66.0	25.6	40.2	13.7	–	2.9	9.4	0.2	14.6
1982 general election	28 Oct 1982	N/A	80.8	22.5 35	45.8 68	4.6 5	2.0 1	4.0 5	14.7 21	0.9 0	23.3
1980 regional election	20 Mar 1980	N/A	61.3	27.8 43	22.4 33	18.8 25	10.6 18	8.9 14	2.4 0	1.7 0	5.4
1 2 Undecided and/or abstentionists excluded.

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 29 April 1984 Parliament of Catalonia election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	1,346,729	46.80	+18.97	72	+29
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE)	866,281	30.11	+7.68	41	+8
	People's Coalition (AP–PDP–UL)1	221,601	7.70	+5.33	11	+11
	Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC)	160,581	5.58	–13.19	6	–19
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	126,943	4.41	–4.49	5	–9
	Party of the Communists of Catalonia (PCC)2	68,836	2.39	+2.09	0	±0
	Agreement of the Catalan Left (EEC)3	35,937	1.25	–0.41	0	±0

Distribution by constituency

Opinion poll sources

References

Elections and referendums in Catalonia
Regional elections	1932 1980 1984 1988 1992 1995 1999 2003 2006 2010 2012 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
Referendums	1931 1979 2006 2014 2017