CNN.com - World News: Election Watch

U.S. Edition

Sign InRegister

SPAIN

COUNTRY	Kingdom of Spain
ELECTION TYPE	Parliamentary
DATE	March 14, 2004

Story Tools:

At stake in this election:

350 seats in the Congreso de los Diputados (Lower house) and 208 seats in the Senado (Senate).

Description of government structure:

Chief of State: King JUAN CARLOS I
Head of Government: President Jose Maria AZNAR Lopez
Assembly: The spanish Cortes Generales consist of two chambers: the Congreso de los Diputados with 350 seats, and the Senado that, defined by the 1978 Spanish Constitution as "the Chamber of Territorial Representation", has had during the Legislature 2000-2004, a legal number of senatorial seats that reached 259.

Description of electoral system:

Members of the Congreso de los Diputados are elected by a proportional representation system – D’hondt - with blocked party lists. The legally imposed minimum threshold of votes required by a candidature to win seats in Congress is 3%.
208 out of the 259 seats in the Senate, are directly elected by voters in a multi-nominal constituencies’ majority system. The remaining 51 seats, are appointed by the Legislative Assemblies of the 17 Spanish Autonomous Communities – Comunidades Autónomas - in the following way: these Assemblies appoint one Senator each, plus one more for every million inhabitants who live within the Autonomous Community.

Results from the parliamentary race:

Party: Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE)
Leader: Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies:164
Seats won in this election to the Senate: 81
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 125
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 61
Party: People’s Party (PP)
Leader: Mariano RAJOY
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies:148
Seats won in this election to the Senate: 102
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 183
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 127
Party: Convergence and Union (CiU)
Leader: Josep Antoni DURAN i LLEIDA
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies:10
Seats won in this election to the Senate:4
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 15
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 8
Party: Catalonia’s Republican Left (ERC)
Leader: Josep-Lluís CAROD-ROVIRA
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies: 8
Seats won in this election to the Senate: 12
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 1
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 0
Party: Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)
Leader: Josu Jon IMAZ
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies:7
Seats won in this election to the Senate: 6
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 7
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 6
Party: United Left (IU)
Leader: Gaspar LLAMAZARES
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies: 5
Seats won in this election to the Senate:0
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 8
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 0
Party: Canarian Coalition (CC)
Leader: Paulino RIVERO
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies: 3
Seats won in this election to the Senate:3
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 4
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 5
Party: Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)
Leader: Anxo QUINTANA
Seats won in this election to the Chamber of Deputies: 2
Seats won in this election to the Senate:0
Seats won in last election to the Chamber of Deputies: 3
Seats won in last election to the Senate: 0

When was the last election?

Spain’s last parliamentary election was held on March 12, 2000.

Population and number of registered voters:

Population: 42.717.064 (January 2003)
Number of registered voters: 34,403,965

Of interest:

It was widely expected that the People's Party would win in the polls. Voters, however, favored ZAPATERO and his PSOE party for his promise to take the Spanish troops from Iraq, and establish better relations within Europe.
After serving two terms, Prime Minister Jose Maria AZNAR Lopez announced that he will step down and allow his successor Mariano RAJOY to lead the People’s Party into the polls.
Important issues surrounding the elections are AZNAR’s support for the US-led war against Iraq as well as the PP’s management of the PRESTIGE oil spill environmental catastrophe. PSOE's proposal for deepening the decentralization process and moving towards a Federal State were also major issues.

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ELECTION SYSTEMS (IFES)

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: IFES ELECTIONGUIDE ONLINE