General elections in Spain are the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

in which the citizens of Spain choose members of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

and of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, the two chambers of the

Cortes Generales The (; ) are the Bicameralism, bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate of Spain, Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, ...

that represent the Spanish people. They are held every four years, unless a repeat or early election is called. Since the adoption of the Constitution of 1978, 14 general elections have been held in Spain. Members of the Congress of Deputies are elected via a system of proportional representation. Members of the Senate are elected via a mixed system: some are elected via a majoritarian system and others are appointed by the

legislatures A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

autonomous communities The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Spa ...

Call for elections

The

comprise the

(lower chamber) and the

(upper chamber). Elections to the Cortes Generales are held every four years, or before in the case of early elections. The

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

can dissolve the legislature and call for early elections at any time, provided that at least one year has passed since the prior election and a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

is not in progress. The formal convocation of elections is effected by a proposal from the prime minister, after deliberation by the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

, and is decreed by the

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

. The Spanish constitution allows elections for the Congress of Deputies and the Senate to be held on different days; nevertheless, they have so far always been held at the same time. The electoral law requires that general elections be held 54 calendar days after the publication of the writs in the

Boletín Oficial del Estado The (''BOE''; "", from 1661 to 1936 known as the ''Gaceta de Madrid'', "") is the official gazette of the Spain, Kingdom of Spain and may be published on any day of the week. The content of the ''BOE'' is authorized and published by Royal Asse ...

. The electoral campaign lasts for fifteen days. An

election silence Election blackout or election silence is the practice of banning political campaigning or media coverage of a general election, before or during that election. Often, the publication of opinion polls is illegal during this time. Operation In som ...

during a "day of reflection" is imposed on the day before the elections.

Active suffrage

All Spanish citizens of the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor (law), minor, and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus te ...

can vote in general elections, whether residing in Spain or abroad. Spaniards permanently residing abroad must be registered on the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA) and make a request to be able to vote, a system known as requested vote. CERA registrees vote in consulates, by mail, or in person. Spaniards residing in Spain who are temporarily out of the country must be registered as Temporarily Absent Resident Spaniards (ERTA) and also must request the vote. ERTA registrees vote in their usual district in Spain by mail. Convicted criminals whose final judicial sentence includes deprivation of suffrage rights cannot vote in elections. Until 2018, those declared incompetent by virtue of a final judicial sentence, and those confined to a psychiatric hospital by judicial authority, also could not vote. In 2018, the election law was changed to eliminate this restriction, permitting 100,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities to vote in elections.

Passive suffrage

All Spaniards who have attained the age of majority are eligible to be candidates in a general election, provided that they are qualified to vote and do not meet any of the criteria for ineligibility: members of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

, of the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, of the

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

, of the Nuclear Safety Council, of the military or police (active), of an electoral commission, the Defender of the People, the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, government appointees, the president of Radio Televisión Española, the governor of the Bank of Spain, judges, prosecutors, and those sentenced to imprisonment by a final conviction, among others. As of the general-election law reform of 2007, candidate campaigns must present gender-balanced electoral lists, so that each gender, male and female, comprises at least 40% of the list. This reform was appealed by the Popular Parliamentary Group of the Congress of Deputies before the

, which in 2008 affirmed that the reform was constitutional. Following the general-election law reform of 2011, parties without representation in the Congress or Senate must collect signatures of voters endorsing their candidacies in order to run in the general election, in addition to other requirements. The political parties need 0.1% of the signatures of the voter population of each constitutuency. Groupings of electors need at least 1% of signatures. Each citizen may only sign for one candidacy. The

Spanish Constitution The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...

requires that the

by elected by free, equal, direct, secret,

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

. Deputies are elected via

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

(with

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

in Ceuta and Melilla), with closed lists in each electoral constituency. The Constitution specifies that the Congress of Deputies must have a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

. The current number is 350 deputies, by the determination of the Organic General Election Regime Law approved in 1985. There are 52 electoral constituencies for the Congress of Deputies, which correspond to the fifty

provinces of Spain A province in Spain * , ; grammatical number, sing. ''provincia'') * Basque language, Basque (, grammatical number, sing. ''probintzia''. * Catalan language, Catalan (), grammatical number, sing. ''província''. * Galician language, Galician ...

plus the autonomous cities of

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

and

Melilla Melilla (, ; ) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga un ...

. According to Spanish electoral law, the number of seats in each constituency can change in each election and it is specified when writs of election are issued. Each constituency is guaranteed a minimum allocation of two seats, and one seat each for Ceuta and Melilla for a total of 102 seats. The remaining 248 seats are allocated proportionally according to population using the

Hare quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...

. Consequently, in the November 2019 general election, the number of deputies in each constituency ranged from 1 deputy each in the constituencies of

and

, up to 37 in the constituency of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. After the holding of a general election, seats are assigned to the electoral lists in each constituency. For that distribution, the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

is used in each constituency separately. Also, there is an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

of 3%, i.e. a party must obtain at least 3% of the valid vote totalBlank votes are considered valid votes; null votes are not. in the constituency in order to select a share of the seats. Regardless, this threshold only has real-life application in constituencies of great size, such as Madrid or Barcelona. In the entire democratic period, this exclusion clause has only been applied once, in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

with the Democratic and Social Centre, that had obtained 2.99% of the votes cast in the province of Madrid and would have sent a deputy if the electoral threshold had not existed. The system of distribution of Congress of Deputies seats to the provinces leads to less populous provinces being overrepresented, because they are assigned more seats than they would receive if seats were distributed strictly in proportion to the population of each province. In the same way, highly populated provinces are underrepresented. The system also tends to favor the large political parties. Despite the use of a proportional representation system, which in general facilitates the emergence of many small parties rather than a few large parties, the electoral system for the Congress of Deputies in practice favors the creation of a

two-party system A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

. There are several reasons for this: * Due to the great population disparity between the provinces, and despite the fact that small provinces are overrepresented, the number of deputies assigned to each of them is small, and their seats tend to go to one of the two major parties. * The electoral threshold of 3% only affects provinces that elect more than 30 deputies, i.e. Madrid and Barcelona. In the other constituencies, where fewer seats are distributed, the real barrier to entry into the Congress is significantly greater. For example, the effective barrier in provinces with three seats is 25%. * The median number of seats per constituency is one of the lowest in Europe. This is due to the use of Spain's provinces as electoral constituencies, which leads to a large number of constituencies. As a consequence, the number of wasted votes is quite high. That is to say, there are a large number of votes that cannot affect the result, because they have been cast for some small party that does not achieve representation in the constituency where those votes were cast. * The D'Hondt method used to distribute seats slightly favors larger parties, compared to other electoral methods, such as the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method or

largest remainder method Party-list proportional representation Apportionment methods The quota or divide-and-rank methods make up a category of apportionment rules, i.e. algorithms for allocating seats in a legislative body among multiple groups (e.g. parties or f ...

. Regardless, the influence of the D'Hondt method in the bipolarization of the electoral system is quite limited. * The size of the Congress of Deputies is relatively small, which can lead to disproportionality and favor large parties.

Senate

The

provides that the

be composed of a variable number of senators, elected by a mixed system. In the 14th Legislature, the Senate is composed of 265 senators: 208 from direct election and 57 appointees. The number of directly elected senators is fixed, while the number of appointed senators varies as a function of the population.

Directly elected senators

The

requires that directly elected senators be elected by free, equal, direct, secret,

. The directly elected members of the Senate are elected by

multiple non-transferable vote Plurality block voting is a type of block voting method for multi-winner elections. Each voter may cast as many votes as the number of seats to be filled. The candidates with the most votes are elected. The usual result when the candidates div ...

(

in the minor istlands), with

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...

s in each electoral constituency. The Constitution fixes the number of senators in each constituency, resulting in a total of 208 total senators chosen by direct election . There are 59 electoral constituencies for the Senate, which correspond to the 46 Spanish peninsular provinces, plus 10 corresponding to islands and two for the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Four senators are allocated to each peninsular province, three to each of the major islands (Gran Canaria, Mallorca and Tenerife), one to each of the minor islands or island groups ( Ibiza-Formentera,

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from , later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Mallorca. Its capital is Maó, situated on the isl ...

, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote y La Palma), and two senators to each of the autonomous cities of

and

Appointed senators

Senators appointed by the

are chosen by their legislative assemblies. The number of appointed senators varies in proportion to each community's population. Each autonomous community is allocated one initial senator, plus one more for every million inhabitants in its territory. At the end of each legislative session, the Permanent Deputation of the Senate determines the number of senators to be appointed in the new legislature. In the

14th Cortes Generales The 14th was a meeting of the , the national legislature of Spain, with the membership determined primarily by the results of the general election held on 10 November 2019. The Cortes met for the first time on 3 December 2019, and was dissolved p ...

, there are 57 appointed senators. The selection of appointed senators is verified with respect to a criterion of attenuated majority representation, which gives primacies to the parties and coalitions with the most votes.

Results

The results of the general elections held in Spain since the passage of the

in 1978. Voter participation and the majority party in elections to the Congress of Deputies and the Senate are shown. There have been 15 general elections held since 1978. The elections with the greatest participation were in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, and those with the least participation in November 2019.

Notes

References

Bibliography

{{Columns-list, colwidth=30em, * {{cite web , last=Álvarez Rivera , first=Manuel , title=Recursos Electorales en la Internet: Elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados de España , url=http://electionresources.org/es/index_es.html , date=24 July 2016 , archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120628205554/http://electionresources.org/es/index_es.html , archivedate=28 June 2012 * {{cite book , title=The Handbook of Electoral System Choice, last=Colomer, first=Josep M., publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, location=Nueva York, language=en, year=2004, isbn=978-1-4039-0454-6 * {{cite web , title=The Spanish Constitution , url=https://www.boe.es/legislacion/documentos/ConstitucionINGLES.pdf , publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado Official State Gazette">Boletín Oficial del Estado">Official State Gazetteaccess-date=10 June 2022 , language=English , date=1978, ref={{harvid, Spanish Constitution, 1978 * {{cite book , title=Politics and Policy in Democratic Spain: No Longer Different?, last=Heywood, first=Paul, publisher=Frank Cass Publishers, location=Londres, language=en, year=1999, isbn=0-7146-4910-4 * {{cite act , index=Organic Law 5/1985 , title=Electoral System Act , url=https://www.boe.es/eli/es/lo/1985/06/19/5/con , date=19 June 1985 , trans-title=Régimen Electoral General, access-date=15 September 2024 , publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado, language=es, ref={{harvid, Electoral System Act, 1985 * {{Cite book , url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2016-4280 , title=Real Decreto 184/2016, de 3 de mayo, de disolución del Congreso de los Diputados y del Senado y de convocatoria de elecciones , author=Jefatura del Estado , date=3 May 2016 , work=Boletín Oficial del Estado , number=núm. 107, de 3 de mayo de 2016 , issn=0212-033X , id=BOE-A-2016-4280 * {{cite book , title=Los sistemas electorales autonómicos, url=http://www.gencat.cat/drep/iea/pdfs/ctA_15.pdf, first=Joan, last=Oliver Araujo, publisher=Generalitat de Catalunya. Institut d’Estudis Autonòmics, date=2011, isbn=978-84-393-8793-0 * {{cite web, author1=OSCE/ODIHR, title=Spain, Early Parliamentary Elections, 20 November 2011: Final Report, url=https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/5/0/88222.pdf, date=17 February 2012, location=Warsaw, publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

External links

Junta Electoral Central
(in Spanish) General elections in Spain

Call for elections

Active suffrage

Passive suffrage

Senate

Directly elected senators

Appointed senators

Results

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links