Valencian regional election, 1987

Valencian regional election, 1987

10 June 1987
All 89 seats in the Corts Valencianes 45 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,727,703 2.7%
Turnout	2,030,881 (74.5%) 1.8 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Joan Lerma Rita Barberá José Luis Boado Party PSOE AP CDS Leader since 31 July 1979 1987 1987 Leader's seat Valencia Valencia Valencia Last election 51 seats, 51.4% 27 seats, 26.9% 0 seats, 1.9% Seats won 42 25 10 Seat change 9 2 10 Popular vote 828,961 476,099 225,663 Percentage 41.3% 23.7% 11.2% Swing 10.1 pp 3.2 pp 9.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Filibert Crespo Albert Taberner Party UV IU–UPV Leader since 1987 1986 Leader's seat Valencia Valencia Last election 5 seats, 5.0% 6 seats, 10.5% Seats won 6 6 Seat change 1 0 Popular vote 183,541 159,579 Percentage 9.1% 7.9% Swing 4.1 pp 2.6 pp
Constituency results map for the Corts Valencianes
President before election Joan Lerma PSOE Elected President Joan Lerma PSOE

The 1987 Valencian regional election was held on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, to elect the 2nd 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, as well as the 1987 European Parliament election.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), suffering from a strong loss of popular support, lost 9 seats together with the absolute majority it had achieved in 1983. However, the PSOE remained as the largest party by a great margin due to the splitting up of the vote between the opposition parties. Incumbent President Joan Lerma was able to retain government thanks to the support of the IU-UPV alliance, and went on to form a minority government.

The People's Coalition had broken up after the 1986 general election. As a result, the People's Alliance (AP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) contested the election separately. AP, with future Mayoress of Valencia Rita Barberá as regional candidate, scored slightly less than 24% of the vote and lost 2 seats compared to the combined totals for the AP-PDP-UL coalition in 1983, while the PDP was swept out of the Courts entirely.^[1]

On the other hand, the election saw an increase of support for minor parties: Centrist Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) experienced a significant increase of its popular support and became the third political force in the region with over 10% of the share. The regionalist right-wing Valencian Union (UV), which ran separately for the first time, won 6 seats to the 5 it had obtained within the People's Coalition in 1983.^[1] The Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which had formed the electoral alliance United Left (IU) in April 1986 with other smaller left-wing parties across Spain, stood in coalition with the regional Valencian People's Unity (UPV) and won 6 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.^[2][3] 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.^[2][4][5]

Elections were fixed to be held within 60 days from the legislature's expiry date, which would take place four years after the previous election.^[3][4]

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. 45 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Corts Valencianes.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout								Lead
1987 regional election	10 Jun 1987	N/A	74.5	41.3 42	23.7 25	7.9 6		11.2 10	9.1 6	1.0 0	17.6
Demoscopia/El País[p 1]	22–26 May 1987	?	?	42.2 43	26.8 30	7.4 5		12.7 11	4.8 0	0.7 0	15.4
Sofemasa/AP[p 2][p 3]	17 Apr 1987	?	?	35.3	23.5	5.9	–	13.7	5.9	3.9	11.8
1986 general election	22 Jun 1986	N/A	76.4	47.5 49	28.8 32	4.7 0	1.9 0	8.8 8	3.1 0	–	18.7
1983 regional election	8 May 1983	N/A	72.7	51.4 51	31.9 32	7.5 6	3.1 0	1.9 0	–	–	19.5

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 10 June 1987 Corts Valencianes election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	828,961	41.28	–10.13	42	–9
	People's Alliance (AP)1	476,099	23.71	–3.20	25	–2
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	225,663	11.24	+9.36	10	+10
	Valencian Union (UV)1	183,541	9.14	+4.16	6	+1
	United Left–Valencian People's Union (IU–UPV)2	159,579	7.95	–2.58	6	±0
	Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity (PTE–UC)	33,770	1.68	New	0	±0
	The Greens (LV)	22,262	1.11	New	0	±0
	People's Democratic Party–Valencian Centrists (PDP–CV)	20,171	1.00	New	0	±0

Distribution by constituency

Post-election

Investiture voting

Date	Candidate	Total	Notes
21 July 1987 Majority required: Absolute (45/89)	YJoan Lerma (PSPV)	48 / 89	PSPV (42), IU-UPV (6)
	Rita Barberá (AP)	25 / 89	AP (25)
	Abstentions	10 / 89	CDS (10)
	Other	6 / 89	Did not vote: UV (6)
Source: El País

Opinion poll sources

References

Elections in the Valencian Community
Regional elections	1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 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 2019