Catalan parliamentary election, 1988

Catalan parliamentary election, 1988

29 May 1988

All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority Turnout 2,709,685 (59.4%) 5.0 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Jordi Pujol Raimon Obiols Rafael Ribó Party CiU PSC IC Leader since 19 September 1978 12 July 1983 23 February 1987 Last election 72 seats, 46.8% 41 seats, 30.1% 6 seats, 5.6% Seats won 69 42 9 Seat change 3 1 3 Popular vote 1,232,514 802,828 209,211 Percentage 45.7% 29.8% 7.8% Swing 1.1 pp 0.3 pp 2.2 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Jorge Fernández Díaz Joan Hortalà Antoni Fernández Teixidó Party AP ERC CDS Leader since 1985 1987 1988 Last election 11 seats, 7.7% 5 seats, 4.4% Did not stand Seats won 6 6 3 Seat change 5 1 3 Popular vote 143,241 111,647 103,351 Percentage 5.3% 4.1% 3.8% Swing 2.4 pp 0.3 pp New party

Graphic of the results in the Catalan Parliament election, 1988, based in seats and constituencies.

President before election Jordi Pujol CiU Elected President Jordi Pujol CiU

The 1988 Catalan parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 29 May 1988, to elect the 3rd Parliament of Catalonia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. At stake were all 135 seats in the Parliament, determining the President of Catalonia.

Electoral system

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Catalonia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. As the community did not have an electoral law of its own passed into law at the time of the 1988 election, the electoral system came regulated under the community's Statute of Autonomy rules, and subsidiarily, under the Spanish general electoral law (Organic Law 5/1985, of the General Electoral Regime). As a result of the lack of an autonomous electoral law, seats were allocated to districts through specific Laws or Decrees for each election. For the 1988 election, seats were distributed as follows: Barcelona (85), Girona (17), Lleida (15) and Tarragona (18).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which includes blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.^[1][2]

Background

After of 8 years of a Convergence and Union government, these elections didn't open up expectations for a possible change in the Catalan Government.

In the past 1984 elections, Convergence and Union won the absolute majority.

Parties

• Convergència i Unió (CiU, Convergence and Union). Presidential candidate: Jordi Pujol. Union of the Catalan nationalist, fiscally liberal Democratic Convergence of Catalonia and the conservative Democratic Union of Catalonia.
• Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC). Presidential candidate: Raimon Obiols i Germà. Social democratic and leftist. The PSC are affiliated to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).
• Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia). Presidential candidate: Joan Hortalà i Arau. Catalan republican and independentist, left-wing.
• Popular Alliance (AP). Presidential candidate: Jorge Fernández Díaz. The main party of the centre-right in Spain.
• Initiative for Catalonia (IC). Presidential candidate: Rafel Ribó. Green (eco-socialist) and leftist.
• Democratic and Social Centre (CDS). Presidential candidate: Antoni Fernández i Teixidó. Centrist and liberal.

Results

← Summary of the 29 May 1988 Catalan Parliament election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	1,232,514	45.72	1.08	69	3
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE)	802,828	29.78	0.33	42	1
	Initiative for Catalonia (IC)	209,211	7.76	New	9	9
	People's Alliance (AP)	143,241	5.31	2.39	6	5
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	111,647	4.14	0.27	6	1
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	103,351	3.83	New	3	3
	Green Alternative-Ecologist Movement of Catalonia (AV-MEC)	16,346	0.61	New	0	±0
	The Ecologist Greens (EVE)	8,730	0.32	New	0	±0
	The Greens (EV)	8,105	0.30	New	0	±0
	Ecologist Party of Catalonia-VERDE (PEC-VERDE)	5,927	0.22	New	0	±0
	Andalusian Party of Catalonia (PAC)	5,815	0.22	New	0	±0
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	5,794	0.21	0.02	0	±0
	Social Democratic Party of Catalonia (PSDC)	5,156	0.19	0.05	0	±0
	Spanish Juntas (JJEE)	4,524	0.17	New	0	±0
	Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE)	2,727	0.10	0.01	0	±0

Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote		9,715	0.36	–	0	±0
	Communist Workers' League (LOC)	2,228	0.08	New	0	±0
	Spanish Falange of the JONS (FE-JONS)	2,202	0.08	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	2,195	0.08	New	0	±0
	Alliance for the Republic (AR)	1,119	0.04	New	0	±0
	Republican People's Unity (UPR)	1,066	0.04	New	0	±0
	Catalan Centrist Unity (UCC)	905	0.03	New	0	±0

	Blank ballots	16,946	0.63	0.13
Total		2,695,935	100.00		135	±0
Valid votes		2,695,935	99.49	0.01
Invalid votes		13,750	0.51	0.01
Votes cast / turnout		2,709,685	59.37	4.99
Abstentions		1,854,704	40.63	4.99
Registered voters		4,564,389
Source(s): Department of Interior and Institutional Relations Argos Information Portal

Vote share
CiU			45.72%
PSC-PSOE			29.78%
IC			7.76%
AP			5.31%
ERC			4.14%
CDS			3.83%
Others			2.83%
Blank ballots			0.63%

Parliamentary seats
CiU			51.11%
PSC			31.11%
IC			6.67%
AP			4.44%
ERC			4.44%
CDS			2.22%

Results by province

Party			BC	GI	LL	TA	Total
	CiU	S	39	11	9	10	69
		V	43.6	56.3	53.8	47.6	45.7
	PSC	S	28	5	4	5	42
		V	31.4	23.6	23.1	27.0	29.8
	IC	S	8	0	0	1	9
		V	8.8	3.9	3.6	5.5	7.7
	AP	S	4	0	1	1	6
		V	5.2	3.7	6.2	7.1	5.3
	ERC	S	3	1	1	1	6
		V	3.7	5.5	5.9	5.3	4.1
	CDS	S	3	0	0	0	3
		V	3.8	3.2	4.3	4.0	3.8
	Total seats		85	17	15	18	135
	Others	V	2.8	3.1	2.4	2.9	2.8
	Blank		0.6	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.6
	Total seats		85	17	15	18	135
Turnout			58.6	65.6	61.2	59.2	59.4

Post-election

Investiture voting

22 June 1988 Investiture voting for Jordi Pujol i Soley (CiU) Absolute majority: 68/135
Vote	Parties	Votes
Yes	CiU (69)	69 / 135
No	PSC (41), IC (9), ERC (6)	56 / 135
Abstentions	AP (6), CDS (3)	9 / 135
Source: Historia Electoral

References

1. "Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime".
2. "Organic Law 4/1979, of 18 December, of Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia".