Spanish general election, 1996

Spanish general election, 1996

1993 ← 3 March 1996 → 2000

All 350 seats of the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 257 seats in the Senate 176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies Opinion polls Turnout 77.4%   First party Second party Third party   Leader José María Aznar Felipe González Julio Anguita Party PP PSOE IU Leader since 4 September 1989 13 October 1974 November 1989 Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid Last election 141 seats, 34.8% 159 seats, 38.8% 18 seats, 9.5% Seats won 156 141 21 Seat change 15 18 3 Popular vote 9,716,006 9,425,678 2,639,774 Percentage 38.8% 37.6% 10.5% Swing 4.0% 1.2% 1.0%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Joaquim Molins Iñaki Anasagasti José Carlos Mauricio Party CiU EAJ-PNV CC Leader since 1995 1986 1996 Leader's seat Barcelona Vizcaya Las Palmas Last election 17 seats, 4.9% 5 seats, 1.2% 4 seats, 0.9% Seats won 16 5 4 Seat change 1 0 0 Popular vote 1,151,633 318,951 220,418 Percentage 4.6% 1.3% 0.9% Swing 0.3% 0.1% 0.0%

Most voted party in each province. Every province is a multi-member district for the Congress.

Prime Minister before election Felipe González PSOE Elected Prime Minister José María Aznar PP

Legislative elections for the Spanish Cortes Generales were held on March 3, 1996. The elections were for 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies, and the 208 directly elected seats in the upper house, the Senate, determining the Prime Minister of Spain.

Incumbent Prime Minister Felipe González of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lost the elections to the People's Party and their leader José María Aznar, thus ending almost 13 and a half years of Socialist rule: to date, the largest period of time a Spanish party has been in power. However, that of Aznar was a bitter victory. He won just 156 seats out of the 176 needed for a majority, thus short of 20 seats to form a majority government. Aznar had to make agreements with Catalan, Basque and Canarian nationalists to become Prime Minister. Similarly, González's one is known as the dulce derrota (sweet defeat). Despite suffering a net loss of 18 seats and being ousted from government, the popular vote margin between both main parties was of just 300,000 votes.

Despite pre-electoral opinion polls and predictions of a huge PSOE defeat and a PP lead of around 10 points, the close end result makes this election the closest in the Spanish democratic period to date.

Overview

The Congress of Deputies consists of 350 members, elected in 50 multi-member districts using the D'Hondt method, with Ceuta and Melilla electing one member each using plurality voting.

Apportionment

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution, the boundaries of the electoral districts must be the same as the provinces of Spain and, under Article 141, this can only be altered with the approval of Congress.

The apportionment of seats to provinces follows the largest remainder method over the resident population ("Padrón") with a minimum of two seats (cf. Art. 162 of the Electoral Law).

Electoral system

Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% of the total vote (which includes votes "en blanco", i.e., for none of the above) can be considered. Under articles 12 and 68 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of both chambers of the Cortes or of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from regional assemblies if elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible. Article 55, Section 2 of the 1985 electoral law also disqualifies director generals or equivalent leaders of state monopolies and public bodies such as the Spanish state broadcaster RTVE.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the Spanish general election, 1996

Results

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  Spanish Congress of Deputies, after the election

• 

  Spanish Senate, after the election

 Summary of the 3 March 1996 Spanish General Courts election results

Parties and coalitions			Votes			Congress		Senate
			#	%	Swing	Seats	+/−	Elect.	App.	Seats	+/−
	People's Party	PP	9,716,006	38.79	+4.03	156	+15	112	21	133	+24
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party	PSOE	9,425,678	37.63	−1.15	141	−18	81	16	97	−17
	United Left	IU	2,639,774	10.54	+0.99	21	+3	0	2	2	±0
	Convergence and Union	CiU	1,151,633	4.60	−0.34	16	−1	8	3	11	−4
	Basque Nationalist Party	PNV	318,951	1.27	+0.03	5	±0	4	2	6	+1
	Canarian Coalition	CC	220,418	0.88	±0.00	4	±0	1	1	2	−4
	Galician Nationalist Bloc	BNG	220,147	0.88	+0.34	2	+2	0	0	0	±0
	Herri Batasuna	HB	181,304	0.72	−0.16	2	±0	0	0	0	−1
	Republican Left of Catalonia	ERC	167,641	0.67	−0.13	1	±0	0	1	1	+1
	Eusko Alkartasuna	EA	115,861	0.46	−0.09	1	±0	0	1	1	±0
	Valencian Union	UV	91,575	0.37	−0.11	1	±0	0	1	1	+1
	Democrats Convergence of Navarre	CDN	17,020	0.07	New	0	±0	0	0	1	+1
	Independents' Party of Lanzarote	PIL	0	0.00	New	0	±0	1	0	1	+1
	Others		536,923	2.14		0	±0	0	1	1	−2
	Blank ballots		243,345	0.97	+0.17
Total			25,046,276	100.00		350	±0	208	49	257	+1
Valid votes			25,046,276	99.50	+0.04
Invalid votes			125,782	0.50	−0.04
Votes cast / turnout			25,172,058	77.38	+0.94
Abstentions			7,359,775	22.62	−0.94
Registered voters			32,531,833
Source: Ministry of the Interior