Aragonese parliamentary election, 1999

Aragonese parliamentary election, 1999

13 June 1999

All 67 seats in the Courts of Aragon 34 seats needed for a majority Registered 999,828 0.6% Turnout 657,464 (65.8%) 5.3 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Santiago Lanzuela Marcelino Iglesias José María Mur Party PP PSOE PAR Leader since 24 September 1993 15 February 1995 1995 Last election 27 seats, 37.5% 19 seats, 25.7% 14 seats, 20.4% Seats won 28 23 10 Seat change 1 4 4 Popular vote 249,458 201,117 86,519 Percentage 38.2% 30.8% 13.3% Swing 0.7 pp 5.1 pp 7.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Chesús Bernal Jesús Lacasa Party CHA IU Leader since 29 June 1986 1998 Last election 2 seats, 4.8% 5 seats, 9.2% Seats won 5 1 Seat change 3 4 Popular vote 72,101 25,040 Percentage 11.0% 3.9% Swing 6.2 pp 5.3 pp

President before election Santiago Lanzuela PP Elected President Marcelino Iglesias PSOE

The 1999 Aragonese parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 5th democratically-elected Courts of Aragon, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Aragon. At stake were all 67 seats in the Courts, determining the President of the Government of Aragon.

The election saw increases in both vote share and seats for the People's Party (PP), which had formed the Government of Aragon since 1995, and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The Aragonese Party (PAR) continued its long-term decline from its peak at the 1987 election while on the left, Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) gained most of United Left (IU) former support, which lost 4 of its 5 seats.

Despite winning the election and gaining one seat from 1995, the PP went into opposition as incumbent President of Aragon Santiago Lanzuela was unable to gather the support from his former coalition partner the PAR. Instead, the PAR supported Socialist Marcelino Iglesias as new regional President, entering into a coalition administration with the PSOE.^[1]

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Aragonese Courts was set to a fixed-number of 67. All Courts members were elected in 3 multi-member districts, corresponding to Aragon's three provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of 13 seats, with the remaining 28 seats allocated among the three provinces in proportion to their populations, on the required condition that the number of inhabitants per seat in each district did not exceed 2.75 times those of any other. For the 1999 election, seats were distributed as follows: Huesca (18), Teruel (15) and Zaragoza (34).

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.^[2]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 13 June 1999 Aragonese Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	249,458	38.21	0.71	28	1
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	201,117	30.81	5.09	23	4
	Aragonese Party (PAR)	86,519	13.25	7.18	10	4
	Aragonese Union (CHA)	72,101	11.04	6.19	5	3
	United Left of Aragon (IU)	25,040	3.86	5.36	1	4
	SOS Nature (SOS)	3,621	0.55	0.42	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	982	0.15	New	0	±0
	Upper Aragonese Territory Regenerationist Group (ARTA)	373	0.06	New	0	±0
	Blank ballots	13,599	2.08	0.50
Total		652,810	100.00		67	±0
Valid votes		652,810	99.29	0.11
Invalid votes		4,654	0.71	0.11
Votes cast / turnout		657,464	65.76	5.36
Abstentions		342,364	34.24	5.36
Registered voters		999,828
Source: Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PP			38.21%
PSOE			30.81%
PAR			13.25%
CHA			11.04%
IU			3.84%
Others			0.76%
Blank ballots			2.08%

Parliamentary seats
PP			41.79%
PSOE			34.33%
PAR			14.93%
CHA			7.46%
IU			1.49%

Results by province

References

1. "Votes from PAR and IU give Socialist Iglesias the presidency of Aragon" (in Spanish). El País. 1999-07-30.
2. "Law 1/1987, of 31 March, electoral of the Autonomous Community of Aragon".