Spanish political reform referendum, 1976

A referendum was held in Spain on 15 December 1976 to approve the Political Reform Act of 1977 which had been approved by the Spanish Parliament, The Cortes Generales. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Political Reform Bill? (Spanish: "¿Aprueba el Proyecto de Ley para la Reforma Política?") The final result was overwhelming support for the project with 97.4% of voters in favour on a turnout of 77.7%.^[1]

Purpose

The Political Reform Act (Spanish: Ley 1/1977 de 4 de enero) was the last of the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and was approved by the Cortes on 18 November 1976. Its aim was to move away from the dictatorship of the Franco era and turn Spain into a constitutional monarchy with a parliament system based on representative democracy. It had been drafted by Torcuato Fernández Miranda, then President of the Cortes, and supported by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and King Juan Carlos. The law provided for the legalisation of political parties and a democratic election to Constituent Cortes, a committee of which then drafted the Constitution.^[2]

Results

Spanish Political Reform Act of 1977
Do you approve of the Political Reform Bill?

Choice	Votes	%
Yes	16,573,180	97.36
No	450,102	2.64
Valid votes	17,023,282	96.73
Invalid or blank votes	576,280	3.27
Total votes	17,599,562	100.00
Registered voters and turnout	22,644,290	77.72
Source: Ministerio del Interior de España

The yes vote ranged from 89.8% in Santander to 96.9% in Almería. The number of blank ballots only exceeded 5% in the three Basque provinces and the Basque province of Guipúzcoa was the only province where the turnout, at 45.25%, was less than 50%.^[3]

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1824 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. 1978: Spain set to vote for democracy BBC News
3. Referendum results

External links

• Text of political reform law (Spanish)