Valencian parliamentary election, 1991

Valencian parliamentary election, 1991

26 May 1991

All 89 seats in the Valencian Courts 45 seats needed for a majority Registered 2,916,465 6.9% Turnout 2,019,411 (69.2%) 5.3 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Joan Lerma Pedro Agramunt Héctor Villalba Party PSPV-PSOE PP UV Leader since 31 July 1979 15 December 1990 1991 Last election 42 seats, 41.3% 25 seats, 24.7%[lower-alpha 1] 6 seats, 9.1% Seats won 45 31 7 Seat change 3 6 1 Popular vote 860,429 558,617 208,126 Percentage 42.8% 27.8% 10.4% Swing 1.5 pp 3.1 pp 1.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Albert Taberner Alejandro Font de Mora Party IU CDS Leader since 1986 1991 Last election 6 seats, 7.9% 10 seats, 11.2% Seats won 6 0 Seat change ±0 10 Popular vote 151,242 76,433 Percentage 7.5% 3.8% Swing 0.4 pp 7.4 pp

President before election Joan Lerma PSPV-PSOE Elected President Joan Lerma PSPV-PSOE

The 1991 Valencian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 26 May 1991, to elect the 3rd democratically elected Valencian Courts, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia. At stake were all 89 seats in the Courts, determining the President of the Valencian Government.

For the third and final time to date, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won a regional election in the Valencian Community, regaining the overall majority of seats it had lost in the 1987 election. This was the last time the PSOE was able to access the Valencian government on its own, and the last until the 2015 election in which it went on to form the regional government of the Valencian Community.

As in other Spanish communities, the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) saw a substantial drop in its vote share, causing it to fall below the 5% threshold and lose all its 10 seats. The party's poor results across Spain led to the resignation of party leader and former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and to the eventual demise of the CDS as a relevant actor in Spanish politics.

The main right of centre parties, both the newly founded People's Party (PP) (a merger of the People's Alliance (AP) and other right-wing parties) and the regionalist Valencian Union (UV), came out reinforced from the election, mainly at the cost of the declining CDS. However, they were left unable to command an overall majority of seats, unlike what happened in the city of Valencia in the same year's election, in which a post-election agreement between both parties managed to oust the PSOE from the city's government and elect 1987 AP regional candidate Rita Barberá as city mayor.

United Left (IU) maintained the results obtained by the IU-UPV alliance in the 1987 election. Valencian People's Unity (UPV) had broken its alliance with IU in 1988 and was left out of the Courts as a result, being unable to surpass the 5% regional threshold to win seats.

Electoral system

The number of seats in the Valencian Courts was set to a fixed-number of 89. All Courts members were elected in 3 multi-member districts, corresponding to the Valencian Community's three 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 29 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 3 times those of any other. For the 1991 election, seats were distributed as follows: Alicante (30), Castellon (22) and Valencia (37).

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. This meant that in the case a list polled above 5% in one or more of the districts but below 5% in the community totals, it would remain outside of the seat apportionment.^[1]

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 26 May 1991 Valencian Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV-PSOE)	860,429	42.85	1.57	45	3
	People's Party (PP)[lower-alpha 1]	558,617	27.82	3.11	31	6
	Valencian Union (UV)	208,126	10.36	1.22	7	1
	United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV)	151,242	7.53	0.42	6	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	76,433	3.81	7.43	0	10
	Valencian People's Unity (UPV)	73,813	3.68	New	0	±0
	The Greens (LV)	35,375	1.76	0.65	0	±0
	The Greens of Alicante-Green Union (LVA-UVE)	5,569	0.28	New	0	±0
	Socialist Democracy (DS)	5,207	0.26	New	0	±0
	Cantonalist Party of the Alicantine Country (Alicantón)	4,119	0.21	New	0	±0
	Left Platform (PE)	2,758	0.14	New	0	±0
	Valencian Nationalist Union (UNV)	2,248	0.11	0.10	0	±0
	National Front (FN)	2,184	0.11	New	0	±0
	Alliance for the Republic (AR)	1,383	0.07	New	0	±0
	Blank ballots	20,606	1.03	0.04
Total		2,008,109	100.00		89	±0
Valid votes		2,008,109	99.44	0.56
Invalid votes		11,302	0.56	0.56
Votes cast / turnout		2,019,411	69.24	5.21
Abstentions		897,054	30.76	5.21
Registered voters		2,916,465
Source(s): Valencian Courts Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PSPV-PSOE			42.85%
PP			27.82%
UV			10.36%
EUPV			7.53%
CDS			3.81%
UPV			3.68%
LV			1.76%
Others			1.17%
Blank ballots			1.03%

Parliamentary seats
PSPV-PSOE			50.56%
PP			34.83%
UV			7.87%
EUPV			6.74%

Results by province

Election results by province.

Notes

1. Compared to the People's Alliance+People's Democratic Party results in the 1987 election.

References

1. "Law 1/1987, of 31 March, Valencian electoral".