Extremaduran regional election, 1995

Extremaduran regional election, 1995

28 May 1995
All 65 seats in the Assembly of Extremadura 33 seats needed for a majority
Registered	845,728 3.0%
Turnout	662,444 (78.3%) 7.3 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Juan Ignacio Barrero Ricardo Sosa Party PSOE PP IU–LV–CE Leader since 20 December 1982 25 September 1993 1993 Leader's seat Badajoz Badajoz Badajoz Last election 39 seats, 54.1% 19 seats, 26.8% 4 seats, 8.1% Seats won 31 27 6 Seat change 8 8 2 Popular vote 289,149 259,703 69,387 Percentage 43.9% 39.5% 10.5% Swing 10.2 pp 12.7 pp 2.4 pp   Fourth party   Leader Pedro Cañada Party CEx Leader since 10 December 1980 Leader's seat Cáceres Last election 0 seats, 4.0% Seats won 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 14,452 Percentage 3.8% Swing 0.2 pp
Constituency results map for the Assembly of Extremadura
President before election Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE Elected President Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE

The 1995 Extremaduran regional election was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 4th Assembly of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura. All 65 seats in the Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won the election, but suffered a spectacular fall in both vote share and seats, losing the absolute majority it had maintained since 1983. On the other hand, the People's Party (PP) made great gains, winning the same 8 seats lost by the PSOE and nearing 40% of the vote. United Left (IU) obtained its best historical result to date in a regional election, with 6 out of 65 seats. The Extremaduran Coalition, an alliance of United Extremadura (EU) and the Extremaduran Regionalist Party (PREx), both of which failed to enter the Assembly in the 1991 election, entered the Assembly with 1 seat.

The Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), which had already been reduced to 3 seats in 1991, did not even stand in the 1995 election, thus losing all of its seats.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was able to be re-elected for a fourth term in office thanks to the abstention of IU. Both PP and IU together commanded an absolute majority of seats and could potentially block the PSOE in the Assembly, as had happened in Andalusia.

Electoral system

The 65 members of the Assembly of Extremadura were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 5 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. Alternatively, parties failing to reach the threshold in one of the constituencies would also be entitled to enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both districts and reached 5 per 100 regionally. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of 20 seats, with the remaining 25 allocated among the constituencies in proportion to their populations.^[1][2] Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all nationals over eighteen, registered in Extremadura and in full enjoyment of all political rights entitled to vote.

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 2 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.^[1][3][4]

Elections were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. Additionally, the chamber was to be automatically 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, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of their four-year terms.^[2][3][5]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Assembly of Extremadura election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	289,149	43.94	–10.21	31	–8
	People's Party (PP)	259,703	39.46	+12.70	27	+8
	United Left–The Greens–Commitment for Extremadura (IU–LV–CE)1	69,387	10.54	+2.40	6	+2
	Extremaduran Coalition (CEx)2	25,168	3.82	–0.17	1	+1
	Independent Socialists of Extremadura (SIEx)	7,722	1.17	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	1,136	0.17	–0.24	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	N/A		–5.75	0	–3
	Blank ballots	5,804	0.88	+0.08
Total		658,069	100.00		65	±0
Valid votes		658,069	99.34	+0.02
Invalid votes		4,375	0.66	–0.02
Votes cast / turnout		662,444	78.33	+7.31
Abstentions		183,284	21.67	–7.31
Registered voters		845,728
Source(s): Argos Information Portal, historiaelectoral.com
Notes: 1 United Left–The Greens–Commitment for Extremadura results are compared to the combined totals of United Left and The Greens in the 1991 election. 2 Extremaduran Coalition results are compared to the combined totals of United Extremadura and Extremaduran Regionalist Party in the 1991 election.

Distribution by constituency

References