Aragonese parliamentary election, 2003

Aragonese parliamentary election, 2003

25 May 2003

All 67 seats in the Courts of Aragon 34 seats needed for a majority Registered 1,019,644 2.0% Turnout 717,457 (70.4%) 4.6 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Marcelino Iglesias Gustavo Alcalde Chesús Bernal Party PSOE PP CHA Leader since 15 February 1995 18 May 2001 29 June 1986 Last election 23 seats, 30.8% 28 seats, 38.2% 5 seats, 11.0% Seats won 27 22 9 Seat change 4 6 4 Popular vote 270,468 219,058 97,763 Percentage 37.9% 30.7% 13.7% Swing 7.1 pp 7.5 pp 2.7 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader José Ángel Biel Adolfo Barrena Party PAR IU Leader since 2 June 2000 May 2002 Last election 10 seats, 13.3% 1 seat, 3.9% Seats won 8 1 Seat change 2 ±0 Popular vote 79,670 21,795 Percentage 11.2% 3.1% Swing 2.1 pp 0.8 pp

President before election Marcelino Iglesias PSOE Elected President Marcelino Iglesias PSOE

The 2003 Aragonese parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th 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 the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had ruled Aragon since the previous election, becoming the largest party in the Courts for the first time since the 1991 election. The PSOE gains came at the expense of the People's Party (PP), which saw a drop of 7 points on its vote share. The Aragonese Union (CHA) made gains and overtook the Aragonese Party (PAR) as the third largest party in the Courts. For the PAR, this was the fourth consecutive election where it lost ground. United Left (IU) held its single seat, albeit with a slightly reduced vote share.

The PSOE and PAR maintained the coalition administration formed after the previous election. As a result, Marcelino Iglesias was re-elected as President of Aragon.

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 2003 election, seats were distributed as follows: Huesca (18), Teruel (14) and Zaragoza (35).

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.^[1]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Aragonese Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	270,468	37.94	7.13	27	4
	People's Party (PP)	219,058	30.73	7.48	22	6
	Aragonese Union (CHA)	97,763	13.71	2.67	9	4
	Aragonese Party (PAR)	79,670	11.18	2.07	8	2
	United Left of Aragon (IU)	21,795	3.06	0.80	1	±0
	The Greens-SOS Nature (LV-SOS)	4,308	0.60	0.05	0	±0
	Aragonese Initiative (INAR)	1,703	0.24	New	0	±0
	Family and Life Party (PFyV)	1,300	0.18	New	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	1,056	0.15	New	0	±0
	Republican Left (IR)	519	0.07	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	330	0.05	0.10	0	±0
	Blank ballots	14,874	2.09	0.01
Total		712,844	100.00		67	±0
Valid votes		712,844	99.36	0.07
Invalid votes		4,613	0.64	0.07
Votes cast / turnout		717,457	70.36	4.60
Abstentions		302,187	29.64	4.60
Registered voters		1,019,644
Source: Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PSOE			37.94%
PP			30.73%
CHA			13.71%
PAR			11.18%
IU			3.06%
Others			1.29%
Blank ballots			2.09%

Parliamentary seats
PSOE			40.30%
PP			32.84%
CHA			13.43%
PAR			11.94%
IU			1.49%

Results by province

References

1. "Law 1/1987, of 31 March, electoral of the Autonomous Community of Aragon".