Cantabrian parliamentary election, 1995

Cantabrian parliamentary election, 1995

28 May 1995

All 39 seats in the Regional Assembly of Cantabria 20 seats needed for a majority Registered 435,752 5.7% Turnout 322,654 (74.0%) 1.7 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader José Joaquín Martínez Sieso Julio Neira Vicente de la Hera Party PP PSOE UPCA Leader since 1995 23 February 1995 13 December 1994 Last election 6 seats, 14.4% 16 seats, 34.8% 15 seats, 33.5% Seats won 13 10 7 Seat change 7 6 8 Popular vote 104,008 80,464 53,191 Percentage 32.5% 25.1% 16.6% Swing 18.1 pp 9.7 pp 16.9 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Miguel Ángel Revilla Ángel Agudo Party PRC IU Leader since 1983 1983 Last election 2 seats, 6.4% 0 seats, 4.4% Seats won 6 3 Seat change 4 3 Popular vote 46,587 23,563 Percentage 14.6% 7.4% Swing 8.2 pp 3.0 pp

President before election Juan Hormaechea UPCA Elected President José Joaquín Martínez Sieso PP

The 1995 Cantabrian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 4th Parliament of Cantabria (known from 1983 to 1998 as Regional Assembly of Cantabria), the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Cantabria. At stake were all 39 seats in the Assembly, determining the President of Cantabria.

The People's Party won the election, recovering much of the vote it had lost in 1991 to Hormaechea's Union for the Progress of Cantabria (UPCA), which fell to third place and lost over half of its seats and votes. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which in 1991 had won the regional election, collapsed and obtained its worst result until that time. The Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC) recovered and scored fourth with nearly 15% of the vote, while United Left (IU) entered the Assembly for the first time.

As a result of the election, José Joaquín Martínez Sieso from the People's Party was able to be elected as regional President thanks to a PP-PRC coalition agreement.

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Regional Assembly of Cantabria was set to a fixed-number of 39. All Assembly members were elected in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Community's territory (the province of Cantabria), using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system.

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the community (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.^[1]

Results

← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Cantabrian Regional Assembly election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	104,008	32.50	18.06	13	7
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	80,464	25.14	9.67	10	6
	Union for the Progress of Cantabria (UPCA)	53,191	16.62	16.91	7	8
	Regionalist Party of Cantabria (PRC)	46,587	14.56	8.21	6	4
	United Left (IU)	23,563	7.36	2.96	3	3
	Independents of Cantabria (INCA)	3,182	0.99	New	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	1,267	0.40	2.28	0	±0
	Cantabria Renewal Coalition (CRCA)	879	0.27	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	705	0.22	0.08	0	±0
	Blank ballots	6,186	1.93	0.24
Total		320,032	100.00		39	±0
Valid votes		320,032	99.19	0.04
Invalid votes		2,622	0.81	0.04
Votes cast / turnout		322,654	74.05	1.71
Abstentions		113,098	25.95	1.71
Registered voters		435,752
Source: Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PP			32.50%
PSOE			25.14%
UPCA			16.62%
PRC			14.56%
IU			7.36%
Others			1.89%
Blank ballots			1.93%

Parliamentary seats
PP			33.33%
PSOE			25.64%
UPCA			17.95%
PRC			15.38%
IU			7.69%

Post-election

Investiture voting

13 July 1995 Investiture voting for José Joaquín Martínez Sieso (PP) Absolute majority: 20/39
Vote	Parties	Votes
Yes	PP (13), UPCA (7), PRC (6)	26 / 39
No	PSOE (10)	10 / 39
Abstentions	IU (3)	3 / 39
Source: El País

References

1. "Law 5/1987, of 27 March, of elections to the Parliament of Cantabria".