Valencian parliamentary election, 2003

Valencian parliamentary election, 2003

25 May 2003

All 89 seats in the Valencian Courts 45 seats needed for a majority Registered 3,423,098 1.8% Turnout 2,447,788 (71.5%) 3.7 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Francisco Camps Joan Ignasi Pla Joan Ribó Party PP PSPV-PSOE IU Leader since 10 July 2002 24 September 2000 1997 Last election 49 seats, 47.9% 35 seats, 33.9% 5 seats, 6.1% Seats won 48 35 6 Seat change 1 ±0 1 Popular vote 1,146,780 874,288 154,494 Percentage 47.2% 35.9% 6.4% Swing 0.7 pp 2.0 pp 0.3 pp

President before election José Luis Olivas PP Elected President Francisco Camps PP

The 2003 Valencian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 6th 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.

Despite growing discontent with the nationwide José María Aznar's government, the People's Party (PP) was able to comfortably retain its absolute majority in the Courts, losing only 1 seat compared to 1999, which went to United Left (IU). The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), despite becoming the party that grew the most from 1999, was unable to translate those new votes into any new seats.

Valencian Union (UV), the former coalition partner of the PP during the first Zaplana Government (1999-2003), continued its decline into irrelevance and fell below 3%, depriving it of any possibility of overcoming the 5% required threshold to enter the Courts.

Francisco Camps became the new President of the Valencian Community succeeding José Luis Olivas, who had replaced Eduardo Zaplana in 2002 after the latter was named Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in Aznar's Cabinet.

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 2003 election, seats were distributed as follows: Alicante (30), Castellon (23) and Valencia (36).

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 25 May 2003 Valencian Courts election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	1,146,780	47.15	0.73	48	1
	Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV-PSOE)	874,288	35.95	2.04	35	±0
	United Left-The Greens-Valencian Left: Agreement (Entesa)	154,494	6.35	0.30	6	1
	Valencian Nationalist Bloc-Green Left (BNV-EV)	114,122	4.69	0.16	0	±0
	Union-Valencian Union (UV)	72,594	2.98	1.70	0	±0
	Republican Left of the Valencian Country (ERPV)	7,609	0.31	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	3,884	0.16	New	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	3,189	0.13	±0.00	0	±0
	Regional Party of the Valencian Community (PRCV)	2,869	0.12	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	2,747	0.11	0.01	0	±0
	Spain 2000 (E-2000)	2,650	0.11	New	0	±0
	Federal Republican Party (PRF)	2,545	0.10	0.03	0	±0
	Authentic Falange (FA)	2,333	0.10	New	0	±0
	Family and Life Party (PFyV)	1,691	0.07	New	0	±0
	Another Democracy is Possible (OtraDem)	1,156	0.05	New	0	±0
	National Democracy (DN)	798	0.03	New	0	±0
	Blank ballots	37,812	1.55	±0.00
Total		2,431,962	100.00		89	±0
Valid votes		2,431,962	99.35	0.06
Invalid votes		15,826	0.65	0.06
Votes cast / turnout		2,447,788	71.51	3.70
Abstentions		975,310	28.49	3.70
Registered voters		3,423,098
Source(s): Valencian Courts Argos Information Portal

Vote share
PP			47.15%
PSPV-PSOE			35.95%
Entesa			6.35%
BNV-EV			4.69%
UV			2.98%
Others			1.31%
Blank ballots			1.55%

Parliamentary seats
PP			53.93%
PSPV-PSOE			39.33%
Entesa			6.74%

Results by province

Election results by province.

References

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