1983 Castilian-Manchegan regional election

Castile-La Mancha parliamentary
election, 1983

8 May 1983
All 44 seats in the Courts of Castile-La Mancha 23 seats needed for a majority
Registered	1,230,011
Turnout	901,872 (73.3%)
First party Second party   Leader José Bono José Lara Party PSOE AP–PDP–PL Leader since 25 March 1983 1983 Seats won 23 21 Popular vote 416,177 364,676 Percentage 46.7% 40.9%
President before election Jesús Fuentes Lázaro PSOE Elected President José Bono PSOE

The 1983 Castile-La Mancha parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st Courts of Castile-La Mancha, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. At stake were all 44 seats in the Courts, determining the President of the Junta of Communities of Castile-La Mancha.

Only two political parties were able to enter the Courts: the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) under MP José Bono, which won an absolute majority of seats (23 out of 44 seats), and the People's Coalition, an electoral alliance led by the right-wing People's Alliance (AP), which included the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Union (UL).

As a result of the election, José Bono became the first democratically-elected President of Castile-La Mancha.

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Castile-La Mancha Courts was set to a fixed-number of 44. All Courts members were elected in 5 multi-member districts, corresponding to Castile-La Mancha's five provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. As the community had not passed an electoral law of its own at the time, the electoral system came regulated under Decree 55/1983, which distributed the Courts seats as follows: Albacete (9), Ciudad Real (10), Cuenca (8), Guadalajara (7) and Toledo (10).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

Results

Overall

Summary of the 8 May 1983 Castile-La Mancha Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
width="1" bgcolor="Template:Spanish Socialist Workers' Party/meta/color" |	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	416,177	46.70	−	23	−
bgcolor="Template:People's Coalition (Spain)/meta/color" |	People's Coalition (AP-PDP-UL)	364,676	40.92	−	21	−
bgcolor="Template:Communist Party of Spain/meta/color" |	Communist Party of Spain (PCE)	61,132	6.86	−	0	−
bgcolor="Template:Democratic and Social Centre (Spain)/meta/color" |	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	26,911	3.02	−	0	−
bgcolor="Template:Liberal Democratic Party (Spain)/meta/color" |	Liberal Democratic Party (PDL)	15,890	1.78	−	0	−
	Spanish Communist Workers' Party-Unified Communist Party (PCOE-PCEU)	579	0.06	−	0	−
	Blank ballots	5,823	0.65	−
Total		891,188	100.00		44	−
Valid votes		891,188	98.82	−
Invalid votes		10,684	1.18	−
Votes cast / turnout		901,872	73.32	−
Abstentions		328,139	26.68	−
Registered voters		1,230,011
Source(s): Historia Electoral − Elections in Castile-La Mancha Argos Information Portal

Vote share PSOE   46.70% AP-PDP-UL   40.92% PCE   6.86% CDS   3.02% PDL   1.78% PCOE-PCEU   0.06% Blank ballots   0.65%

Parliamentary seats PSOE   52.27% AP-PDP-UL   47.73%