Vizcaya (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

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Location of Vizcaya district in Spain
Location of Vizcaya district in Spain

Vizcaya (also called Biscay) is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is situated in the Basque Country and the largest city is Bilbao where around 30% of the electorate of almost a million live. Barakaldo and Getxo are the only other large municipalities with electorates over 50,000.

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[edit] Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution [1] the boundaries must be the same as the province of Vizcaya and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

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[edit] Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from Regional Assemblies if successfully elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible. [2]

[edit] Number of members

In the general elections from 1977 until 1989 Vizcaya returned 10 members. That figure was reduced to 9 members for the 1993 General Election onwards. Vizcaya was one of the few districts whose electorate fell between 2000 and 2004 and it returns one member more than Asturias despite the latter now having a larger electorate. [3] As a result it will lose a seat at the forthcoming general election being reduced to eight members. [4]

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population. [5] These laws are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General) The practical effect of this law has been to overrepresent smaller provinces at the expense of larger provinces.

Vizcaya had a ratio of 109,064 voters per deputy in 2004 [6] above the Spanish average of 98,777 voters per deputy [7].

[edit] Summary of seats won 1977–2008

1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 3 2 4 3 2 3 2 2 3 4
Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE) 1 1
Democratic Centre Union (UCD) 2 2 1
People's Party (PP) 1 1 1 2 2 3 2 1
Batasuna (HB) 2 1 2 2 1 1
Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) 1
United Left (IU) 1

Note: Seats shown for the PP include seats won by their predecessors, the Popular Alliance and Popular Coalition before 1989. They ran in an electoral alliance with the UCD in 1982. Euskadiko Ezkerra merged with the PSOE after the 1989 election.

[edit] Vote share summary 1977–2008

1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) 31.0 29.2 33.4 29.3 27.9 29.5 29.2 34.2 37.3 31.2
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 25.3 19.1 29.6 26.6 20.8 24.9 23.8 22.9 26.8 37.0
Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE) 5.4 5.9 6.6 8.4 7.9
Democratic Centre Union (UCD) 16.4 16.0 12.0
People's Party (PP) 6.7 4.2 10.7 9.7 15.3 18.4 27.3 18.7 18.4
United Left (IU) 5.4 5.8 2.2 1.6 3.6 7.1 9.7 5.8 8.9 4.4
Batasuna (HB) 14.5 13.1 15.9 15.1 12.5 9.9
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 1.5 5.0 3.4 0.8 0.1 0.1 0.1
Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) 7.9 6.3 5.2 5.1 4.3 3.1

Note:PP's predecessors contested the 1979 election under the label "Unión Foral" [8] in the town of Mondragón in the neighbouring district of Guipúzcoa which led to a suspension of campaigning. Whether as a result of this or not, PSOE-EE recorded their best over vote share in the district, overtaking the Basque Nationalist PNV for the first time ever and recording the second highest increase in their vote share in any of the 52 districts. With the reduction in representation in the district, both PNV and PP lost seats, with PSOE-EE gaining a seat. IU, having come within 2500 votes of winning a seat in 2004, had one of their worst results here, with only the Balearic Islands seeing a larger drop in their vote share.

[edit] 2004 General Election

While Bilbao produced a result close to the average, PSOE did better in the second town of Barakaldo polling nearly 40%. PP had a better than avaerage performance in Getxo taking second place with 29% of the vote. PNV had their best performances in the northern coastal towns. In Bermeo they polled 52%, while in the neighbouring municipalities of Gorliz and Plentzia at the end of the Bilbao Metro they polled nearly 60%.

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Vizcaya.
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco) 258,488 37.29 4 Pedro María Azpiazu, Josu Iñaki Erkoreka, Aitor Esteban, Margarita Uría
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 185,514 26.76 3 José María Benegas, Eduardo Madina, Arantza Mendizábal
People's Party (Partido Popular) 129,889 18.74 2 Marisa Arrúe, Ignacio Astarloa
United Left 59,493 8.58 0
Eusko Alkartasuna 30,096 4.34 0
Aralar 12,791 1.85 0
Others 8,160 2.44 0

Source: [9]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spanish Constitution
  2. ^ Spanish Constitution
  3. ^ Asturias 2004 electorate
  4. ^ Vizcaya representation reduced
  5. ^ General features of Spanish electoral system
  6. ^ Vizcaya election result 2004
  7. ^ 2004 Spanish election
  8. ^ Unión Foral in 1979 election.

    [edit] Results

    The 2008 election was overshadowed by the killing of a former PSOE councillor by ETA<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7283488.stm ETA blamed for killing PSOE former councillor]</li> <li id="cite_note-8">'''[[#cite_ref-8|^]]''' [http://www.elecciones.mir.es/MIR/jsp/resultados/index.htm Interior ministry link to election results]</li></ol></ref>

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    Electoral districts of the Spanish Congress of Deputies