Catalan regional election, 2003

16 November 2003

All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia
68 seats needed for a majority

Opinion polls

Registered

5,307,837

0.3%

Turnout

3,319,276 (62.5%)

3.3 pp

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Artur Mas	Pasqual Maragall	Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira
Party	CiU	PSC–CpC	ERC
Leader since	7 January 2002^[1]	6 March 1999	25 November 1996
Leader's seat	Barcelona	Barcelona	Barcelona
Last election	56 seats, 37.7%	52 seats, 37.9%	12 seats, 8.7%
Seats won	46	42	23
Seat change	10	10	11
Popular vote	1,024,425	1,031,454	544,324
Percentage	30.9%	31.2%	16.4%
Swing	6.8 pp	6.7 pp	7.7 pp

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Leader	Josep Piqué	Joan Saura
Party	PP	ICV–EUiA
Leader since	4 September 2003	26 November 2000
Leader's seat	Barcelona	Barcelona
Last election	12 seats, 9.5%	3 seats, 3.9%
Seats won	15	9
Seat change	3	6
Popular vote	393,499	241,163
Percentage	11.9%	7.3%
Swing	2.4 pp	3.4 pp

Constituency results map for the Parliament of Catalonia

President before election

Jordi Pujol
CiU

Elected President

Pasqual Maragall
PSC–CpC

The 2003 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 16 November 2003, to elect the 7th Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

This election marked a change for all Catalan political parties due to Catalan President Jordi Pujol's decision not to seek a seventh term in office and to retire from active politics. The election results were a great disappointment for Pasqual Maragall's Socialists' Party of Catalonia, which again saw Convergence and Union winning a plurality of seats despite them winning the most votes by a margin of just 0.3%. Opinion polls earlier in the year had predicted a much larger victory for Maragall, but his lead over CiU had begun to narrow as the election grew nearer. ERC was the perceived true victor of the election, doubling its 1999 figures and scoring the best results in its recent history, both in terms of seats (23 of 135) and votes (16.4%), up from 11 seats and 8.7%.

As Pujol's successor Artur Mas did not won a majority large enough to renew his party pact with the People's Party of Catalonia, which had kept Pujol in power since 1995, an alliance between the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, Republican Left of Catalonia and Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left resulted in the Catalan tripartite government. Ironically, despite losing 10 seats and 150,000 votes respect to the 1999 election, Maragall became the first center-left President of Catalonia, ending with 23 years of Convergence and Union government.

Background

The retirement of Jordi Pujol as CiU candidate paved the way for Artur Mas, then Chief Counsellor (Catalan: Conseller en cap), as the culmination of a long successory process.

In 1999, because of the PSC growth, Convergence and Union had lost the vote share for the first time, but had won the most seats due to the disproportionate allocation of seats in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona respect to Barcelona. Thanks to the support of the PPC, Pujol had been able to be re-elected to a sixth term in office. In spite of this, and despite Pujol's approval ratings remaining high, rumours about his possible retirement and a desire for change had resulted in CiU trailing the PSC in opinion polls for the entire legislature, with a lead nearly into the double digits by mid-to-late 2002. From mid-2003, however, the Socialist lead had begun to narrow to the point that speculation arose about a possible reenactment of the 1999 results.

ERC was in almost constant growth since the 1988 election, and had become a political force able to break through the dominant two-party system in Catalonia. Initiative for Catalonia Greens and United and Alternative Left had run separately in the previous election, but ran together in a party coalition for this 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.^[2] 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.^[3] Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. Each constituency was allocated a fixed number of seats: 85 for Barcelona, 17 for Girona, 15 for Lleida and 18 for Tarragona.^[2]^[4]

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 1 per 100 of the electors entered in electoral register of the constituency for which they were seeking election. 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 ten days from the election call.^[5]^[6]

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 17 October 1999, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 17 October 2003. The election was required to be called no later than 2 October 2003, with it taking place on the sixtieth day from the call, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament at Monday, 1 December 2003.^[2]

Article 46 of the Law granted the President the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous one under this procedure. Additionally, under Article 54 the Parliament was to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process failed to elect a regional President within a two-month period from the first ballot.^[4]^[7]

Parties and leaders

	Composition	Ideology	Candidate
Socialists' Party of Catalonia–Citizens for Change (PSC–CpC)	List • PSC • CpC	Social democracy	Pasqual Maragall
Convergence and Union (CiU)	List • CDC • UDC	Centrism	Artur Mas
People's Party (PP)		Liberal conservatism	Josep Piqué
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)		Left-wing nationalism	Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira
Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA)	List • ICV • EUiA	Eco-socialism	Joan Saura

Opinion polls

Vote

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 such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	PPC	ERC	ICV	EUiA	Oth.	Lead
Date	Polling Firm/Source							Oth.	Lead
16 Nov 2003	Regional Election	31.2	30.9	11.9	16.4	7.3	w. ICV	2.3	0.3
16 Nov	Ipsos-Eco	32.3	29.4	10.3	17.6	7.6	w. ICV	2.8	2.9
16 Nov	Gallup	35.1	29.4	9.6	15.7	8.0	w. ICV	2.2	5.7
16 Nov	Sigma-2	34.3	30.6	11.3	15.2	6.7	w. ICV	1.9	3.7
Exit polls
10 Nov	Celeste-Tel	36.3	34.3	10.7	11.9	5.3	w. ICV	1.5	2.0
8 Nov	DEP	34.7	35.8	9.7	13.8	4.6	w. ICV	1.4	1.1
3–6 Nov	Noxa	36.2	33.1	9.5	13.0	6.9	w. ICV	1.3	3.1
5 Nov	Celeste-Tel	37.1	31.5	11.1	13.1	5.5	w. ICV	1.7	5.6
3–5 Nov	Sigma-2	35.0	32.2	12.4	12.8	5.9	w. ICV	1.7	2.8
1–5 Nov	Vox Pública	36.5	30.9	10.0	13.7	6.9	w. ICV	2.0	5.6
31 Oct–2 Nov	Opina	34.5	32.5	10.5	12.5	6.5	w. ICV	3.5	2.0
31 Oct	Line-Staff	35.5	30.0	12.0	13.0	7.0	w. ICV	2.5	5.5
31 Oct	Opina	34.5	34.0	10.0	12.5	6.5	w. ICV	2.5	0.5
20–27 Oct	Demoscopia	36.1	33.2	10.5	12.0	7.5	w. ICV	0.7	2.9
13–26 Oct	CIS	34.4	32.4	11.1	12.6	7.4	w. ICV	2.1	2.0
7 Oct	Feedback	35.4	34.0	9.9	13.0	6.1	w. ICV	1.6	1.4
29 Sep–1 Oct	Vox Pública	37.0	33.0	8.9	13.3	5.7	w. ICV	2.1	4.0
10–11 Sep	Noxa	36.4	33.7	7.8	15.1	5.9	w. ICV	1.1	2.7
7–10 Jul	Noxa	36.3	33.7	7.8	14.5	5.9	w. ICV	1.8	2.6
25–27 Jun	Vox Pública	38.8	31.6	9.5	14.0	4.2	w. ICV	1.9	7.2
31 Mar–1 Apr	Vox Pública	41.0	32.1	7.0	13.4	4.4	w. ICV	2.1	8.9
5–7 Mar	Opina	38.0	33.0	9.0	14.0	5.0	w. ICV	1.0	5.0
13–15 Jan	Vox Pública	40.5	32.6	8.3	12.4	4.0	w. ICV	2.2	7.9
7–11 Jan	Noxa	43.0	34.7	7.8	10.7	2.2	w. ICV	1.6	8.3
7–10 Jan	CES	37.3	35.7	9.8	11.9	3.5	w. ICV	1.8	1.6
2003
31 Dec	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	40.0	31.5	9.0	12.5	5.5	w. ICV	1.5	8.5
22 Oct	La Vanguardia	39.0	30.5	9.5	14.0	3.0		4.0	8.5
7–9 Oct	Vox Pública	40.5	32.4	8.8	12.4	2.9	1.0	2.0	8.1
9 Sep–9 Oct	CIS	33.6	35.2	9.6	11.3	6.5		3.8	1.6
25–27 Jun	Vox Pública	40.5	33.0	8.0	12.0	3.3	1.0	2.2	7.5
15–17 Apr	Vox Pública	40.2	34.1	8.0	10.3	3.2	1.4	2.8	6.1
11–16 Apr	Opina	35.0	36.0	10.2	11.5	3.0		4.3	1.0
8 Apr	La Vanguardia	40.5	33.0	9.5	11.0	2.5		3.5	7.5
11–14 Mar	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	40.0	33.0	9.5	11.0	3.0	1.5	2.0	7.0
4–5 Feb	Vox Pública	39.4	35.6	8.7	10.3	2.6	1.2	2.2	3.8
2002
20–22 Nov	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	39.0	35.0	9.0	9.5	2.5	1.5	3.5	4.0
23–25 Oct	Vox Pública	36.8	36.1	8.4	12.3	2.8	1.4	2.2	0.7
23 Oct	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	39.5	36.0	7.5	10.5	2.5	1.5	2.5	3.5
28–30 Jun	Vox Pública	37.2	36.8	8.3	11.0	3.3	1.5	1.9	0.4
12–14 Jun	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	39.0	35.5	8.3	10.5	3.0	1.3	2.4	3.5
19–20 Apr	Vox Pública	39.2	35.2	9.5	9.6	2.6	1.0	2.9	4.0
3–26 Mar	CIS	37.7	34.6	10.3	10.8	3.9	1.1	1.6	3.1
28 Feb–2 Mar	Vox Pública^{[lower-alpha 1]}	39.5	37.0	9.3	8.3	3.0	1.3	1.6	2.5
1–2 Feb	Vox Pública	37.5	36.6	9.5	10.5	2.8	0.8	2.3	0.9
2001
27–29 Nov	Vox Pública	40.0	37.5					22.5	2.5
6 Nov	Opina	37.0	36.0	10.5	9.5	2.5		4.5	1.0
1–2 Nov	Vox Pública	37.6	37.7	9.0	9.5	1.6	1.4	3.2	0.1
12 Mar 2000	General Election	34.1	28.8	22.8	5.6	3.5	2.2	3.0	4.3
2000
17 Oct 1999	Regional Election	37.9	37.7	9.5	8.7	2.5	1.4	2.3	0.2

Seat projections

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. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

68 seats needed for majority
Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	PPC	ERC	ICV	EUiA	Others
Date	Polling Firm/Source							Others
16 Nov 2003	Regional Election	42	46	15	23	9	w. ICV	0
16 Nov	Ipsos-Eco	44−46	43−45	12−14	24−26	8−9	w. ICV	0
16 Nov	Gallup	47−49	43−45	12	22−23	7−9	w. ICV	0
16 Nov	Sigma-2	46−47	45−46	14−15	22	6	w. ICV	0
Exit polls
10 Nov	Celeste-Tel	48−51	48−49	13−15	17−18	5−6	w. ICV	0
8 Nov	DEP	45−48	50−54	11−12	18−21	3−5	w. ICV	0
3–6 Nov	Noxa	49−50	48−49	12	18−19	6−7	w. ICV	0
5 Nov	Celeste-Tel	49−50	45−47	14−15	18−19	6−7	w. ICV	0
3–5 Nov	Sigma-2	46−49	46−49	15−16	18−20	5−6	w. ICV	0
1–5 Nov	Vox Pública	50−51	45−47	12−13	19−20	7−8	w. ICV	0
31 Oct–2 Nov	Opina	48−50	47−49	13	17−19	7	w. ICV	0
31 Oct	Line-Staff	49	44−46	16	17−18	7−8	w. ICV	0
31 Oct	Opina	47	49−50	12−13	19	7	w. ICV	0
20–27 Oct	Demoscopia	48−49	49	13	18−19	6	w. ICV	0
13–26 Oct	CIS	47	48	14	18	8	w. ICV	0
7 Oct	Feedback	47	49	14	19	6	w. ICV	0
29 Sep–1 Oct	Vox Pública	50−53	45−49	11−12	18−19	5	w. ICV	0
10–11 Sep	Noxa	49−52	46−49	9−10	22−23	5	w. ICV	0
7–10 Jul	Noxa	49−52	48−51	9−10	20−21	5	w. ICV	0
25–27 Jun	Vox Pública	54−55	44−45	12−13	20−21	4	w. ICV	0
31 Mar–1 Apr	Vox Pública	56−57	46−48	7−8	19−20	4−5	w. ICV	0
5–7 Mar	Opina	50−51	48−51	11−12	18−21	4	w. ICV	0
13–15 Jan	Vox Pública	55−57	48−50	9−10	17−18	4	w. ICV	0
7–11 Jan	Noxa	57	51	10	15	2	w. ICV	0
7–10 Jan	CES	52−53	51−52	12	16−17	2	w. ICV	0
2003
22 Oct	La Vanguardia	55−57	44−46	11−13	19−20	3	0	0
7–9 Oct	Vox Pública	55−57	47−49	10−12	16−18	3−4	0	0
22 Sep	La Vanguardia	56	49	9	20	1	0	0
8 Apr	La Vanguardia	55−57	48−50	12−13	15−16	0−2	0	0
2002
17 Aug	La Vanguardia	54−56	48−50	12−13	15−16	2−3	0	0
29 May	La Vanguardia	52−53	50−51	13−14	15−16	3	0	0
3–26 Mar	CIS	52	51	13	16	3	0	0
2001
6 Nov	Opina	51	54	14	13	3	0	0
2000
17 Oct 1999	Regional Election	52	56	12	12	3	0	0

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 16 November 2003 Parliament of Catalonia election results →
Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats

Parties and coalitions		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia–Citizens for Change (PSC–CpC)	1,031,454	31.16	–6.69	42	–10
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	1,024,425	30.94	–6.76	46	–10
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	544,324	16.44	+7.77	23	+11
	People's Party (PP)	393,499	11.89	+2.38	15	+3
	Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA)¹	241,163	7.28	+3.35	9	+6

Parties with less than 1.0% of the vote		45,406	1.37	—	±0
	The Greens–The Ecologist Alternative (EV–AE)	18,470	0.56	New	±0
	Platform for Catalonia (PxC)	4,892	0.15	New	±0
	Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI)	4,226	0.13	+0.04	±0
	Communist Party of the Catalan People (PCPC)	2,580	0.08	New	±0
	Unsubmissive Seats (Ei)	2,220	0.07	New	±0
	Catalan State (EC)	1,890	0.06	±0.00	±0
	The Greens–Green Alternative (EV–AV)	1,886	0.06	–0.20	±0
	Republican Left–Left Republican Party (IR–PRE)	1,714	0.05	New	±0
	Humanist Party of Catalonia (PHC)	1,647	0.05	+0.01	±0
	Another Democracy is Possible (OtraDem)	1,386	0.04	New	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	1,073	0.03	–0.01	±0
	Caló Nationalist Party (PNCA)	812	0.02	New	±0
	Republican Social Movement (MSR)	804	0.02	New	±0
	Internationalist Struggle (LI (LIT–CI))	802	0.02	±0.00	±0
	Spaniards Under Separatism (EBS)	603	0.02	New	±0
	Citizens for Blank Votes (CenB)	401	0.01	New	±0

Blank ballots

30,212

0.91

–0.02

Total

3,310,483

100.00

135

±0

Valid votes

3,310,483

99.74

–0.01

Invalid votes

8,793

0.26

+0.01

Votes cast / turnout

3,319,276

62.54

+3.34

Abstentions

1,988,561

37.46

–3.34

Registered voters

5,307,837

Source(s): Generalitat of Catalonia, historiaelectoral.com

Notes:
¹ Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left results are compared to the combined totals of Initiative for Catalonia–Greens and United and Alternative Left in the 1999 election.

Popular vote

PSC–CpC			31.16%
CiU			30.94%
ERC			16.44%
PP			11.89%
ICV–EUiA			7.28%
Others			1.37%
Blank ballots			0.91%

Seats

CiU			34.07%
PSC–CpC			31.11%
ERC			17.04%
PP			11.11%
ICV–EUiA			6.67%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency	PSC–CpC		CiU		ERC		PP		ICV–EUiA

	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
Barcelona	33.2	29	28.8	25	15.2	13	12.6	11	8.0	7
Girona	23.7	4	38.7	7	21.9	4	8.1	1	5.3	1
Lleida	22.5	4	41.4	7	19.9	3	9.7	1	4.4	–
Tarragona	28.2	5	33.8	7	19.0	3	11.8	2	5.2	1
Total	31.2	42	30.9	46	16.4	23	11.9	15	7.3	9

Aftermath

Investiture vote

First round: 16 December 2003
Absolute majority (68/135) required
Candidate: Pasqual Maragall
Choice		Vote
Choice		Parties	Votes
	YYes	PSC (42), ERC (23), ICV–EUiA (9)	74 / 135
	No	CiU (46), PP (15)	61 / 135
	Abstentions		0 / 135
Source: historiaelectoral.com

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 This poll provides data ranges, approximations and/or various electoral scenario hypotheses calculated using similar weighting parameters. In order to simplify, the average of these data is given.

References

↑ "CiU hace oficial la candidatura de Mas para la presidencia de la Generalitat". El País. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
1 2 3 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979, Organic Law No. 4 of December 18, 1979 Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved on 14 March 2017.
↑ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
1 2 Parliament, President and Executive Council of the Generalitat Law of 1982, Law No. 3 of March 25, 1982 Official Journal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (in Spanish). Retrieved on 14 March 2017.
↑ General Electoral System Organic Law of 1985, Organic Law No. 5 of June 19, 1985 Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved on 28 December 2016.
↑ "Representation of the people Institutional Act". juntaelectoralcentral.es. Central Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
↑ Parliament, President and Executive Council of the Generalitat Law Reform of 1985, Law No. 8 of May 24, 1985 Official Journal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (in Spanish). Retrieved on 14 March 2017.

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