Extremaduran parliamentary election, 2003

Extremaduran parliamentary election, 2003

25 May 2003

All 65 seats in the Assembly of Extremadura 33 seats needed for a majority Registered 881,228 0.5% Turnout 666,468 (75.6%) 2.2 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Carlos Floriano Manuel Cañada Party PSOE PP IU Leader since 20 December 1982 13 October 2000 1 October 1995 Last election 34 seats, 49.6%[lower-alpha 1] 28 seats, 40.0% 3 seats, 7.0%[lower-alpha 2] Seats won 36 26 3 Seat change 2 2 ±0 Popular vote 341,522 255,808 41,448 Percentage 51.7% 38.7% 6.3% Swing 2.1 pp 1.3 pp 0.7 pp

President before election Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE Elected President Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE

The 2003 Extremaduran parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th Assembly of Extremadura, the unicameral regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Extremadura. At stake were all 65 seats in the Assembly, determining the President of Extremadura.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which in this election ran in coalition with the Extremaduran Coalition, enlarged its absolute majority from 34 to 36 seats, at the cost of the opposition People's Party (PP), which fell to 26 and lost ground for the first time since the 1987 election. United Left (IU), which formed a coalition with the Independent Socialists of Extremadura (SIEx), maintained its 3 seats but was unable to make gains.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was elected for his sixth and last term in office as President of Extremadura, as he would announce in September 2006 he would not stand for re-election in 2007.^[1]

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Extremaduran Assembly was set to a fixed-number of 65. All Assembly members were elected in 2 multi-member districts, corresponding to Extremadura's two provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of 20 seats, with the remaining 25 seats allocated among the two provinces in proportion to their populations. For the 2003 election, seats were distributed as follows: Badajoz (35) and Cáceres (30).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in each district (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution. Alternatively, however, if a party did not reach the 5% threshold in a district, it could enter the seat distribution on the following conditions:

• 1. That the party did stood in both districts.
• 2. That, regionally, the party did reach the 5% threshold (even if it did not reach it in one of the two districts).^[2]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Extremaduran Assembly election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party-Progresists (PSOE-Progresistas)[lower-alpha 1]	341,522	51.66	2.03	36	2
	People's Party (PP)	255,808	38.70	1.31	26	2
	United Left-Independent Socialists of Extremadura (IU-SIEx)[lower-alpha 2]	41,448	6.27	0.74	3	±0
	United Extremadura (EU)	12,171	1.84	0.17	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	1,082	0.16	New	0	±0
	Blank ballots	9,033	1.37	0.22
Total		661,064	100.00		65	±0
Valid votes		661,064	99.19	0.19
Invalid votes		5,404	0.81	0.19
Votes cast / turnout		666,468	75.63	2.19
Abstentions		214,760	24.37	2.19
Registered voters		881,228
Source(s): Extremaduran Electoral Board Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PSOE-Progresistas			51.66%
PP			38.70%
IU-SIEx			6.27%
EU			1.84%
PH			0.16%
Blank ballots			1.37%

Parliamentary seats
PSOE-Progresistas			55.38%
PP			40.00%
IU-SIEx			4.62%

Results by province

Election results by province.

Notes

1. Compared to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party+Extremaduran Coalition results in the 1999 election.
2. Compared to the United Left+Independent Socialists of Extremadura results in the 1999 election.

References

1. "Rodríguez Ibarra will not stand for re-election" (in Spanish). El País. 2006-09-19.
2. "Law 2/1987, of 16 March, of elections to the Assembly of Extremadura.".