1979 Spanish general election

A general election was held in Spain on Thursday, 1 March 1979, to elect the members of the 1st . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 208 seats in the Senate. This was the first election held under the Spanish Constitution of 1978, which had been approved in a referendum on 6 December and which had lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, resulting in an increase of the electoral roll by three million people.

The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) remained the largest party, winning 168 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 119 of the 208 seats in the Senate. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had merged with the People's Socialist Party (PSP) and was widely expected to make large gains—with some opinion polls predicting a narrow win—fell short of expectations and lost ground when compared to the combined totals for the PSOE–PSP alliance in the 1977 election. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) obtained the best result in its history, whereas Manuel Fraga's Democratic Coalition (CD)—an electoral bloc formed by the People's Alliance (AP), the Liberal Citizens Action (ACL) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP)—lost nearly half of its seats. The election would also see the best showing of the far-right in Spain until the April 2019 election, as Blas Piñar-led National Union (UN) would secure one seat with 2.1% of the vote share.

As a result of the election, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez went on to form a minority government, depending on support from the CD and other minor parties such as the Socialist Party of Andalusia–Andalusian Party (PSA–PA), the Regionalist Aragonese Party (PAR) and the Navarrese People's Union (UPN).

Overview

Electoral system

The Spanish were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override. Voting for the was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights..

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. 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. The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled to the following seats:

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, 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. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants.

The law provided for by-elections to fill Congress seats only when the results in a particular constituency were annulled by a final court's decision deriving from the election's legal challenge procedures; additionally for the Senate, by-elections were required to fill any seat vacated up to two years into the legislature's term.

Election date

The term of the Cortes elected in the 1977 election was not to be continued beyond 15 June 1981 in the event they were not dissolved earlier. An election was required to be held within from 30 to 60 days after the date of expiry of the , setting the latest possible election date for the on Friday, 14 August 1981.

The prime minister had the prerogative to propose the monarch to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved, and a new election called, if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barred this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections to the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.

The Spanish Cortes were officially dissolved on 1 January 1979 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official State Gazette (BOE), setting the election date for 1 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 23 March (for the Congress) and 27 March (for the Senate).

Parties and candidates

Eligibility

Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election. Causes of ineligibility were imposed on the president and members of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Council of State and the Court of Auditors; the Ombudsman; high-ranking members—undersecretaries, secretaries-general, directors-general and chiefs of staff—of the General State Administration, government delegations, the Social Security and other government agencies; judges and public prosecutors in active service; Armed Forces and police corps personnel in active service; members of electoral commissions; and the chairs of national trade unions; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction.. Disqualification provisions for the Cortes Generales extended to the impossibility of being simultaneously a member of both the Congress and Senate.

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one permille—and, in any case, 500 signatures—of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates..

Main candidacies

Below is a list of the main parties and coalitions which contested the election:

Opinion polls

Results

Congress of Deputies

Senate

Maps

File:1979 Spanish general election map.svg, Election results by constituency (Congress).
File:1979 Spanish election - Results.svg, Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress).
File:1979 Spanish election - AC results.svg, Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress).

Aftermath

Government formation

1980 motion of no confidence

1980 motion of confidence

1981 investiture

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:General election in Spain, 1979
1979 elections in Spain
1979
March 1979 in Spain