Spanish general election, 1977

Spanish general election, 1977

15 June 1977
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 207 (of 248) seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered	23,583,762
Turnout	18,590,130 (78.8%)
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 Seats won 165 118 20 Popular vote 6,310,391 5,371,866 1,709,890 Percentage 34.4% 29.3% 9.3%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Manuel Fraga Enrique Tierno Galván Jordi Pujol Party AP PSP–US PDC Leader since 9 October 1976 1974 17 November 1974 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Barcelona Seats won 16 6 11 Popular vote 1,526,671 816,582 514,647 Percentage 8.3% 4.5% 2.8%
Constituency results map for the Congress of Deputies
Prime Minister before election Adolfo Suárez UCD Elected Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez UCD

The 1977 Spanish general election was held on Wednesday, 15 June 1977, to elect the Spanish Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 207 seats in the Senate.

It was the first free election held in Spain since 1936, prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It was called by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez as part of the political reform of the Francoist regime, ongoing since shortly after Francisco Franco's death in 1975 and promoted by his successor, King Juan Carlos I. Its aim was to elect a Constituent Cortes that was to draft a new constitution, which would ultimately lead to the repealing of the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and the culmination of the country's peaceful transition to democracy.

The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), the electoral coalition created to serve as Suárez's political platform in government, emerged as the largest party overall, albeit 11 seats short of an absolute majority. The election surprise was the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) of Felipe González, which—supported by the German SPD and running a campaign intended to highlight González's youth and charisma—won 118 seats and became the main left-of-centre party by a wide margin. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which had been the main opposition force to the dictatorship, and the right-wing People's Alliance (AP) of former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga, performed below expectations. Turnout was high at 78.8%, the second highest for any nationwide election held ever since.^[1][2]

Overview

Background

The death of Francisco Franco in 1975 paved the way for Spain's transition from an autocratic, one-party dictatorship into a democratic, constitutional monarchy. As per the Succession Law of 1947, the Spanish monarchy was restored under the figure of Juan Carlos I, who quickly became the promoter of a peaceful democratic reform of state institutions. This move was supported by western countries, an important sector of Spanish and international capitalism, a majority of the opposition to Francoism—organized into the Democratic Convergence Platform and the Democratic Junta, which in 1976 would both merge into the Democratic Coordination—and a growing part of the Franco regime itself, weary of popular mobilization after the outcome of the Carnation Revolution in neighbouring Portugal in 1974.^[3] However, as incumbent Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro rejected any major transformation of the Spanish political system, rather supporting the preservation of Francoist laws, he was dismissed by the King in July 1976, who appointed Adolfo Suárez for the post.

Suárez's plans for political reform involved the transformation of Spanish institutions in accordance to the Francoist legal system through the approval of a "political reform bill" as a Fundamental Law of the Realm. This was meant as a step beyond Arias Navarro's plans to update—but preserve—the Francoist regime, with Suárez intending to implement democracy "from law to law through law"—in words of Torcuato Fernández-Miranda—without the outright liquidation of the Francoist system as called by opposition parties.^[4][5] Thus, on 18 November 1976, the 1977 Political Reform Act was passed by the Francoist Cortes, later ratified in a referendum on 15 December 1976 with an overwhelming popular support. As set out in Suárez's scheme, the Act called for an electoral process to elect new Cortes that were to be responsible for drafting a democratic constitution.

Electoral system

Under the 1977 Political Reform Act, the Spanish Cortes were envisaged as a provisional legislature that was to approve a new constitution in a short time-span. Initiative for constitutional amendment belonged to the Congress of Deputies, as well as to the Government. Constitutional bills required to be passed by an absolute majority in both the Congress and Senate. If the Senate rejected the bill as passed by Congress, discrepancies were to be submitted to a Mixed Commission and, if the deadlock persisted, a joint sitting of both Houses would convene as a single legislative body in order to resolve on the issue by an absolute majority.^[6] Voting for the Cortes was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all nationals over twenty-one and in full enjoyment of all civil and political rights entitled to vote.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats 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.^[7] Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of two seats, with the remaining 248 fixed among the constituencies in proportion to their populations, at a rate of approximately one seat per each 144,500 inhabitants or fraction greater than 70,000. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting.^[6][8]

For the Senate, 207 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger—Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife—being allocated three seats each, and the smaller—Menorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera-El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma—one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. The law also provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated up to two years into the legislature. Additionally, the King could appoint senators in a number not higher than one-fifth of the elected seats.^[6][8]

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.^[8]

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 such 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. Seat projections 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. 176 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout									EC	ASD	FDI	AN18		ESB	Lead
1977 general election	15 Jun 1977	N/A	78.8	34.4 165	29.3 118	9.3 20	8.3 16	4.5 6	2.8 11	2.3 2	1.6 8	0.8 1	0.7 0	0.7 0	0.6 0	0.3 1	0.2 0	5.1
ANA/Europa Press[p 1]	14 Jun 1977	1,825	80	31.4 143	26.0 104	8.1 20	9.5 32	6.6 14	1.7 6	6.4 17	2.4 8	—	—	—	—	—	—	5.4
ICSA–Gallup/Ya[lower-roman 1][p 2]	14 Jun 1977	1,200	91.8	28.9	32.6	6.5	6.4	5.4	2.7	4.4	2.0	—	0.7	3.4	0.6	—	—	3.7
Tecnia/Informaciones[p 3]	11–12 Jun 1977	1,500	64.8	29.5	27.3	9.5	6.5	7.7	2.9	6.1	1.8	—	1.2	1.2	0.7	1.1	0.2	2.2
ALEF/Cuadernos para el Diálogo[p 4]	11 Jun 1977	?	?	33.7	20.0	10.8	11.3	8.0	—	11.4	—	—	—	3.0	1.8	—	—	13.7
Sofemasa/El País[lower-roman 1][p 5][p 6][p 7]	6–8 Jun 1977	15,875	91.7	34.0 141	27.0 121	8.1 28	9.2 25	5.4 11	1.5 10	2.6 3	1.0 6	? 1	1.0 1	0.7 0	0.7 0	? 1	? 2	7.0
ANA/Europa Press[p 8][p 9][p 4]	28 May–2 Jun 1977	5,100	?	30.0 130/153	20.7 81/99	7.2 14/20	11.3 42/58	6.2 10/17	2.3 6/10	6.8 13/27	1.3 5/8	—	2.3 1/4	1.5 1/2	—	0.4 2	—	9.3
Metra Seis/La Vanguardia[p 10]	28 May–1 Jun 1977	1,700	83.1	34.4	24.2	9.7	4.9	6.8	—	3.1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	10.2
Metra Seis/Diario 16[p 11]	28 May–1 Jun 1977	1,700	76.8	40.5	20.7	7.8	8.3	6.1	3.1	5.6	1.4	—	—	3.5	—	—	—	19.8
Sofemasa/El País[lower-roman 1][p 12]	18–19 May 1977	1,638	85.2	33.8	22.5	9.7	9.6	6.6	—	5.0	2.7	—	2.9	2.4	1.2	—	—	11.3
Sofemasa/El País[lower-roman 1][p 13]	4–5 May 1977	1,595	85.1	33.5	21.9	8.8	7.9	9.0	—	1.8	2.5	—	0.5	1.4	0.4	—	—	11.6
1 2 3 4 Undecided and/or abstentionists excluded.

Results

Congress of Deputies

Summary of the 15 June 1977 Congress of Deputies election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	6,310,391	34.44	—	165	—
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	5,371,866	29.32	—	118	—
	Communist Party of Spain (PCE)	1,709,890	9.33	—	20	—

Bibliography

• Carreras, Albert; Tafunell, Xavier; Soler, Raimon; Fontana, Josep (2005) [1989]. Estadísticas históricas de España, siglos XIX-XX (PDF) (in Spanish). Volume 1 (II ed.). Bilbao: Fundación BBVA. pp. 1072–1097. ISBN 84-96515-00-1. 
• Santos, Juliá (1999). Un siglo de España. Política y sociedad (in Spanish). Madrid: Marcial Pons. ISBN 84-9537903-1. 
• Martínez, Jesús (1998). Historia de España. Siglo XX (1939-1996) (in Spanish). Madrid: Cátedra. ISBN 9788437617039. 
• Preston, Paul (2003). Juan Carlos, el rey de un pueblo (in Spanish). Volume 2. Hospitalet: ABC, S.L. pp. 362–415. ISBN 84-413-2063-2. 
• Ruiz, David (2002). La España democrática (1975-2000). Política y sociedad (in Spanish). Madrid: Síntesis. pp. 1072–1097. ISBN 84-9756-015-9. 
• Tusell, Javier (1997). La transición española. La recuperación de las libertades (in Spanish). Madrid: Historia 16-Temas de Hoy. ISBN 84-7679-327-8. 

Opinion poll sources

References

Elections and referendums in Spain
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See also: Elections and referendums in Andalusia Aragon Asturias Balearic Islands Basque Country Canary Islands Cantabria Castile and León Castile-La Mancha Catalonia Extremadura Galicia Madrid Murcia Navarre La Rioja Valencian Community