Valencian regional election, 1991

Valencian regional election, 1991

26 May 1991
All 89 seats in the Corts Valencianes 45 seats needed for a majority
Registered	2,916,465 6.9%
Turnout	2,019,411 (69.2%) 5.3 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Joan Lerma Pedro Agramunt Héctor Villalba Party PSOE PP UV Leader since 31 July 1979 15 December 1990 1991 Leader's seat Valencia Valencia Valencia Last election 42 seats, 41.3% 25 seats, 24.7% 6 seats, 9.1% Seats won 45 31 7 Seat change 3 6 1 Popular vote 860,429 558,617 208,126 Percentage 42.8% 27.8% 10.4% Swing 1.5 pp 3.1 pp 1.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Albert Taberner Alejandro Font de Mora Pere Mayor Party EUPV CDS UPV Leader since 1986 1991 1986 Leader's seat Valencia Castellón (lost) Valencia (lost) Last election 4 seats, 5.3% 10 seats, 11.2% 2 seats, 2.6% Seats won 6 0 0 Seat change 2 10 2 Popular vote 151,242 76,433 73,813 Percentage 7.5% 3.8% 3.7% Swing 2.2 pp 7.4 pp 1.1 pp
Constituency results map for the Corts Valencianes
President before election Joan Lerma PSOE Elected President Joan Lerma PSOE

The 1991 Valencian regional election was held on Sunday, 26 May 1991, to elect the 3rd Corts of the Valencian Community. All 89 seats in the Corts were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

For the third and final time to date, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won a regional election in the Valencian Community, regaining the overall majority of seats it had lost in the 1987 election. This was the last time the PSOE was able to access the Valencian government on its own, and the last until the 2015 election in which it went on to form the regional government of the Valencian Community.

As in other Spanish communities, the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) saw a substantial drop in its vote share, causing it to fall below the 5% threshold and lose all its 10 seats. The party's poor results across Spain led to the resignation of party leader and former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and to the eventual demise of the CDS as a relevant actor in Spanish politics.

The main right of centre parties, both the newly founded People's Party (PP) (a merger of the People's Alliance (AP) and other right-wing parties) and the regionalist Valencian Union (UV), came out reinforced from the election, mainly at the cost of the declining CDS. However, they were left unable to command an overall majority of seats, unlike what happened in the city of Valencia in the same year's election, in which a post-election agreement between both parties managed to oust the PSOE from the city's government and elect 1987 AP regional candidate Rita Barberá as city mayor.

United Left (IU) maintained the results obtained by the IU-UPV alliance in the 1987 election. Valencian People's Unity (UPV) had broken its alliance with IU in 1988 and was left out of the Courts as a result, being unable to surpass the 5% regional threshold to win seats.

Electoral system

The 89 members of the Corts Valencianes 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 regionally. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of 20 seats, with the remaining 29 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 the Valencian Community 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 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.^[1][3][4]

Legal amendments earlier in 1991 established that elections were to be fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.^[2][3]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 26 May 1991 Corts Valencianes election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	860,429	42.85	+1.57	45	+3
	People's Party (PP)1	558,617	27.82	+3.11	31	+6
	Valencian Union (UV)	208,126	10.36	+1.22	7	+1
	United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV)2	151,242	7.53	+2.23	6	+2
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	76,433	3.81	–7.43	0	–10
	Valencian People's Union (UPV)2	73,813	3.68	+1.03	0	–2
	The Greens (LV)	35,375	1.76	+0.65	0	±0

Distribution by constituency

References