Castile-La Mancha parliamentary election, 2003

Castile-La Mancha parliamentary
election, 2003

25 May 2003

All 47 seats in the Courts of Castile-La Mancha 24 seats needed for a majority Opinion polls Registered 1,447,786 2.4% Turnout 1,104,109 (76.3%) 1.4 pp   First party Second party   Leader José Bono Adolfo Suárez Illana Party PSOE PP Leader since 25 March 1983 26 May 2002 Last election 26 seats, 53.4% 21 seats, 40.4% Seats won 29 18 Seat change 3 3 Popular vote 634,132 402,047 Percentage 57.8% 36.7% Swing 4.4 pp 3.7 pp

President before election José Bono PSOE Elected President José Bono PSOE

The 2003 Castile-La Mancha parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th Courts of Castile-La Mancha, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. At stake were all 47 seats in the Courts, determining the President of the Junta of Communities of Castile-La Mancha.

The election was won again by the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which obtained its best historical result and the largest overall majority ever in the region, with nearly 58% of the share and over 3/5 of the seats. It became, at the time, the largest vote share obtained by any party in a regional election in Spain;^[1] a record which would be exceeded by the PP results in Murcia in 2007 and 2011.

The opposition People's Party (PP), despite naming former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez' son, Adolfo Suárez Illana, as its presidential candidate, continued its decline in the region and obtained its worst election result since 1987, with only 18 seats.

As a result, José Bono was elected for his sixth and last term in office, which he would not complete. He would resign in 2004 after being appointed Minister of Defence in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Cabinet, as a result of the PSOE winning the 2004 general election. Bono would be succeeded as regional premier by his deputy since 1999, José María Barreda.

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Castile-La Mancha Courts was set to a fixed-number of 47. All Courts members were elected in 5 multi-member districts, corresponding to Castile-La Mancha's five provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Each district was assigned a fixed set of seats, distributed as follows: Albacete (10), Ciudad Real (11), Cuenca (8), Guadalajara (7) and Toledo (11).

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]

Opinion polls

Vote

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. Poll results use the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. However, if such date is unknown, the date of publication will be given instead.

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSOE	PP	IU	Oth.	Lead
25 May 2003	Regional Election	57.8	36.7	3.0	2.5	21.1
Exit polls
22 Mar–28 Apr	CIS	57.4	35.4	4.2	3.0	22.0
2003
9 Sep–9 Oct	CIS	54.6	39.6	3.2	2.6	15.0
18–30 Sep	Inner	58.1	37.8	3.7	0.4	20.3
10–13 Jun	Inner	55.5	40.0	3.0	1.5	15.5
28 Mar	Sigma-2	54.5	39.4		6.1	15.1
2002
19 Oct	Inner	57.5	38.9		3.6	18.6
2001
2000
13 Jun 1999	Regional Election	53.4	40.4	3.4	2.8	13.0

Seat projections

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 24 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Courts of Castile-La Mancha.

24 seats needed for majority

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSOE	PP	IU	Others
25 May 2003	Regional Election	29	18	0	0
Exit polls
22 Mar–28 Apr	CIS	30	17	0	0
2003
18–30 Sep	Inner	28	19	0	0
10–13 Jun	Inner	27	20	0	0
2002
2001
2000
13 Jun 1999	Regional Election	26	21	0	0

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Castile-La Mancha Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	634,132	57.83	4.41	29	3
	People's Party (PP)	402,047	36.66	3.74	18	3
	United Left-Left of Castile-La Mancha (IUCLM)	33,413	3.05	0.36	0	±0
	Communal Land-Castilian Nationalist Party (TC-PNC)	2,187	0.20	0.03	0	±0
	The Greens-Green Group (LV-GV)	1,684	0.15	0.05	0	±0
	Independents for Cuenca (ixC)	1,658	0.15	New	0	±0
	Castilian Unity (UdCa)	1,344	0.12	New	0	±0

Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote		5,565	0.51	–	0	±0
	Family and Life Party (PFyV)	866	0.08	New	0	±0
	National Democracy (DN)	802	0.07	New	0	±0
	Castilian Left (IzCa)	621	0.06	New	0	±0
	Independent Regional Unity (URI)	580	0.05	0.01	0	±0
	Regionalist Party of Guadalajara (PRGU)	517	0.05	±0.00	0	±0
	Spanish Democratic Party (PADE)	498	0.05	0.05	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	492	0.04	0.05	0	±0
	The Falange (FE)	472	0.04	New	0	±0
	Republican Left (IR)	467	0.04	New	0	±0
	Authentic Falange (FA)	250	0.02	New	0	±0

	Blank ballots	14,549	1.33	0.09
Total		1,096,579	100.00		47	±0
Valid votes		1,096,579	99.32	±0.00
Invalid votes		7,530	0.68	±0.00
Votes cast / turnout		1,104,109	76.26	1.41
Abstentions		343,677	23.74	1.41
Registered voters		1,447,786
Source: Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PSOE			57.83%
PP			36.66%
IUCLM			3.05%
Others			1.13%
Blank ballots			1.33%

Parliamentary seats
PSOE			61.70%
PP			38.30%

References

1. "Bono strengthens his stronghold and highlights the absence of the Iraq war in his campaign" (in Spanish). El País. 2003-05-26.
2. "Law 5/1986, of 23 December, electoral of Castile-La Mancha.".