Parliamentary election in Catalonia 1995
The 1995 general election in Catalonia took place on November 19, 1995. The fifth parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia was elected. All 135 seats in parliament were up for election.
Electoral system
The Parliament of Catalonia was the dedicated, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, which had legislative power in regional affairs within the meaning of the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, as well as the possibility of trusting or withdrawing a government president. The vote for Parliament was based on universal suffrage, which included all nationals over the age of 18 who were registered in Catalonia and who were in full exercise of their political rights.
The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed system of proportional representation, with a threshold of 3 percent of the valid votes - including blank ballots - in each constituency. Parties that did not reach the threshold were not taken into account in the allocation of seats. In addition, depending on the size of the district, the application of the D'Hondt method could lead to an effective threshold value of over three percent. The seats were assigned to the constituencies, which corresponds to the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. A fixed number of seats was allocated to each constituency: 85 for Barcelona, 17 for Girona, 15 for Lleida and 18 for Tarragona.
The electoral law stipulated that parties, associations, coalitions and groups of voters could submit lists of candidates. The associations of voters, however, were obliged to secure the signature of at least one percent of the voters registered in the constituency for which they had stood for election. Voters were not allowed to sign for more than one list of candidates. At the same time, parties and associations intending to form a coalition in order to jointly take part in an election were obliged to inform the responsible election commission within ten days of calling the election.
Election date
The term of office of the Parliament of Catalonia ended four years after the date of its last election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The district president was obliged to call an election fifteen days before the end of parliament, with election day taking place within sixty days of the call. The last election took place on March 15, 1992, which means that Parliament's term would have expired on March 15, 1996. The election had to take place no later than February 29, 1996, on the sixtieth day after the election, with the latest possible election date for Parliament being set on Monday, April 29, 1996. The district president had the prerogative to dissolve the parliament of Catalonia and to hold a quick election, provided that there is no motion of no confidence and the dissolution has not taken place within the framework of this procedure within a year since an earlier one. Should an investiture process fail to elect a regional president within two months of the first ballot, parliament should automatically be dissolved and a new election held.
Election results
All in all
| Political party | Party list votes |
Votes in% | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergència i Unió (CiU) | 1,320,071 | 40.95% | 60 | |
(PSC-CPC)
|
802.252 | 24.89% | 34 | |
| Partit Popular (PPC) | 421,752 | 13.08% | 17th | |
| Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV) | 313.092 | 9.71% | 11 | |
| Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) | 305.867 | 9.49% | 13 | |
| Otherwise. | 29.501 | 0.91% | - | |
| All in all | 3,223,952 | 100.0% | 135 |
