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Elections in Spain encompass four different types: general elections,regional elections,local elections, and elections to theEuropean Parliament. General elections and regional elections are typically conducted at the conclusion of the national or regional legislative mandate, which usually spans four years since the previous election. However, early elections can be called in certain circumstances. On the other hand, local council elections (including municipal and insular elections) and elections to the European Parliament follow fixed dates, although some local government bodies, such asprovincial councils, are not directly elected. In most elections, aparty-list proportional representation (PR) system is employed, while theSenate utilizes theplurality system.
General elections are elections held for the national legislature, which is called in SpainCortes Generales (Spanish for "General Courts") and consists oftwo chambers, theCongress of Deputies and theSenate. The Congress and Senate usually serve concurrent terms that run for a maximum of four years. However, thePrime Minister has the prerogative to dissolve both Houses at any given time either jointly or separately.
The Congress is made out of 350 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term of office. Each one of Spain's fifty provinces is a constituency entitled to an initial minimum of two seats; the cities ofCeuta andMelilla elect one member each. The remaining 348 seats are allocated among the fifty provinces in proportion to their populations. Parties, federations, coalitions andagrupaciones de electores (electors' groups) may present candidates or lists of candidates. Thelists are closed, so electors may not choose individual candidates in, or alter the order of, such lists. Electors cast a ballot for a single list, or for a single candidate in Ceuta and Melilla.
The seats in each constituency are apportioned according to thelargest average method of proportional representation (PR), conceived by the Belgian mathematician Victor d'Hondt in 1899 (d'Hondt method). However, in order to participate in the allocation of seats, a list must receive at least three percent of all valid votes cast in the constituency, includingblank ballots. The single-member seats in Ceuta and Melilla are filled by the plurality orfirst-past-the-post method, under which the candidate obtaining the largest number of votes in the constituency is elected.[1]
To illustrate the functioning of the system, the allocation of seats in the three provinces of the Self-Governing or Autonomous Community ofAragón -Huesca,Teruel andZaragoza - for theJune 1993 general election is presented here in detail. At the time, Zaragoza province had seven seats in Congress, while both Huesca and Teruel had three.[2]
In Zaragoza province, only four tickets, namely theSpanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), thePopular Party (PP), theAragonese Party (PAR) and theUnited Left (IU) won at least three percent of the valid votes cast in the election - including blank ballots - and were thus entitled to participate in the allocation of constituency seats. The tickets were sorted by number of votes from top to bottom, and the votes polled by each of these were then divided by 1, 2, 3, and so on until the number of seats to be allocated was reached, as detailed below:
| Division | PSOE | PP | PAR | IU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 174,061 | 172,753 | 108,690 | 60,074 |
| 2 | 87,030 | 86,376 | 54,345 | 30,037 |
| 3 | 58,020 | 57,584 | 36,230 | 20,024 |
| 4 | 43,515 | 43,188 | 27,172 | 15,018 |
| 5 | 34,812 | 34,550 | 21,738 | 12,014 |
| 6 | 29,010 | 28,792 | 18,115 | 10,012 |
| 7 | 24,865 | 24,679 | 15,527 | 8,582 |
| Seats | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Seats were then awarded to the tickets obtaining the largest quotients or averages (shown inbold). As indicated, the PSOE won three seats, the PP two, the PAR one and IU one. The seats won by each ticket were awarded to the candidates included therein, according to their ranking on the lists: therefore, the first three candidates on the PSOE list were elected to Congress, as were the first two candidates on the PP list and the candidates at the top of the PAR and IU lists, respectively.
Meanwhile, the results of the election in Huesca province were as follows:
| Division | PSOE | PP | PAR | IU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50,720 | 43,059 | 23,784 | 9,756 |
| 2 | 25,360 | 21,529 | 11,892 | 4,878 |
| 3 | 16,906 | 14,353 | 7,928 | 3,252 |
| Seats | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
The effective representation threshold in Huesca was 25,360 votes, or 19.0% of the valid vote.
Finally, the outcome of the election in Teruel was the following:
| Division | PSOE | PP | PAR | IU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36,327 | 34,293 | 12,070 | 3,990 |
| 2 | 18,163 | 17,146 | 6,035 | 1,995 |
| 3 | 12,109 | 11,431 | 4,023 | 1,330 |
| Seats | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
The effective representation threshold in Teruel was 18,163 votes, or 20.2% of the valid vote.
Having concluded the allocation of Congress seats in the three Aragón constituencies, the following peculiarities stand out:
The system for electing the Senate was first used in 1979, though with regard to the provinces the system is unchanged since 1977. Senators are elected directly from the provinces and indirectly from theautonomous communities; currently, there are 264 senators, 208 directly elected and 56 indirectly elected.
In the provinces, a majoritarianpartial block voting system is used. All peninsular provinces elect four senators each; the insular provinces (Balearic andCanary Islands) elect one or three senators per island, and Ceuta and Melilla elect two senators each. Parties nominate three candidates; each voter has three votes (fewer in those constituencies electing fewer senators) and votes for candidates by name, the only instance of personal voting in Spanish national elections. The usual outcome is three senators for the party with the most votes, and one senator for the runner-up, except in very close races.
The autonomous communities receive one senator, plus one for each million inhabitants. They are entitled to determine how they choose their senators but are generally elected by the legislature of the respective community in proportion to its party composition.
| Election | UCD[a] | PSOE | PP[b] | IU[c] | CDC[d] | PNV | ERC[e] | BNG[f] | EHB[g] | CDS[h] | CC[i] | UPyD | Cs | Com. | Pod.[j] | Vox | MP | Sumar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 34.4 | 29.3 | 8.3 | 9.3 | 2.8 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.2 | |||||||||
| 1979 | 34.8 | 30.4 | 6.1 | 10.8 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 | |||||||||
| 1982 | 6.8 | 48.1 | 26.4 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.9 | ||||||||
| 1986 | Dissolved | 44.1 | 26.0 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 9.2 | 0.3 | |||||||
| 1989 | 39.6 | 25.8 | 9.1 | 5.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 7.9 | 0.3 | ||||||||
| 1993 | 38.8 | 34.8 | 9.6 | 4.9 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 0.9 | ||||||||
| 1996 | 37.6 | 38.8 | 10.5 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.9 | ||||||||
| 2000 | 34.2 | 44.5 | 5.4 | 4.2 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 1.3 | Boycotted | 0.1 | 1.1 | ||||||||
| 2004 | 42.6 | 37.7 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 | 0.8 | Banned | 0.1 | 0.9 | ||||||||
| 2008 | 43.9 | 39.9 | 3.8 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.2 | |||||||
| 2011 | 28.8 | 44.6 | 6.9 | 4.2 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 1.4 | Dissolved | 0.6 | 4.7 | DNR | 0.5 | |||||
| 2015 | 22.0 | 28.7 | 3.7 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 13.9 | [k] | 20.7 | 0.2 | ||||
| 2016 | 22.6 | 33.0 | [k] | 2.0 | 1.2 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 13.1 | [k] | 21.2 | 0.2 | ||||
| Apr. 2019 | 28.7 | 16.7 | [l] | 1.9 | 1.5 | 3.9 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.5 | DNR | 15.9 | 0.7 | 14.3 | 10.3 | ||||
| Nov. 2019 | 28.0 | 20.8 | [l] | 2.2 | 1.6 | 3.6 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.5 | [m] | 6.8 | [n] | 12.9 | 15.1 | 2.4 | |||
| 2023 | 31.7 | 33.1 | [o] | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 0.5 | Dissolved | DNR | [o] | [o] | 12.4 | [o] | 12.3 |
Elections to theunicameral parliaments of theautonomous communities of Spain are held every four years. Most of the seventeen autonomous parliaments elections take place the same day, the fourth Sunday of May of the year before aleap year; the last election was held on28 May 2023. Despite this, not all the regions celebrate elections at the same time due to the power of the regional presidents to call early elections if necessary.
Depending on the autonomy statute of each nationality or region, the regional president has a greater or lesser number of conditions for calling early elections. Regional elections are held in all nationalities, regions, and cities, fifty-four days after the publication of their announcement in theOfficial State Gazette and in the official gazette of the corresponding autonomous community.
There are currently two groups of autonomous communities: those that must hold elections on the fourth Sunday in May every four years—counting from May 1983—and those that do not have this obligation. Although all communities in both groups may bring forward elections, in the case of those in the first group that hold early elections, the new legislatures are limited by the natural term of the original legislature, so that in any case there will be elections in May of each four-year period.
The six autonomous communities required to hold elections on the fourth Sunday in May of each four-year period areAsturias,Cantabria,Castilla-La Mancha,La Rioja, theCommunity of Madrid, and theRegion of Murcia. So far, only in Asturias (in2012) and Madrid (in2021) have elections been brought forward, resulting in shorter legislatures for that period.
The other autonomous communities, namelyAndalusia,Aragon, theBalearic Islands, theCanary Islands,Castile and León,Catalonia, theValencian Community,Extremadura,Galicia,Navarre, and theBasque Country, may bring forward elections, resulting in a full legislative term. Despite this, only six communities – Extremadura in2025; Andalusia in1996,2015 and2018; Castile and León in2022; the Basque Country in1986,2001 and2012; Catalonia in1995,2006,2012,2015,2017 and2024; Galicia in2009,2012,2020 and2024; and the Valencian Community in2019, have brought forward elections under this new system. The others – namely Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Navarre, and the Valencian Community since 2023 – continue to hold them jointly with the elections of the autonomous communities not authorized to bring them forward.
Elections in themunicipalities take place in all the country in the same day as the regional elections, the fourth Sunday of May of the year before a leap year. Last time was28 May 2023.
The laws regulating the conduct and administration of elections are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General.[3]) Under this law, the elections are supervised by the Electoral Commission (Junta Electoral), a permanent body composed of eight Supreme Court judges and five political scientists or sociologists appointed by the Congress of Deputies. The Electoral commission is supported in its work by the Interior Ministry. On election day,polling stations are run by electoral boards which consist of groups of citizens selected by lottery.[4]
The format of theballot paper is designed by the Spanish state, however, the law allows political parties to produce and distribute their own ballot papers, either by mailing them to voters or by other means such as street distribution, provided that they comply with the official model. The government then covers the cost of all printed ballot papers. These must then be marked by voters, either in the polling station or outside the polling station and placed inside sealed envelopes which are then placed insideballot boxes in the polling station. Following the close of polls, the ballots are then counted in each individual polling station in the presence of representatives of the political parties and candidates. The ballots are then immediately destroyed, with the exception of those considered invalid or challenged by the candidates' representatives, which are retained for further scrutiny. The result is that fullrecounts are impossible.[5]
