Catalan parliamentary election, 2003

Catalan parliamentary election, 2003
Catalonia
16 November 2003

All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia
68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered 5,307,837 Increase0.3%
Turnout 3,319,276 (62.5%)
Increase3.3 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Pasqual Maragall Artur Mas Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira
Party PSC CiU ERC
Leader since 6 March 1999 7 January 2002[1] 25 November 1996
Last election 52 seats, 37.9% 56 seats, 37.7% 12 seats, 8.7%
Seats won 42 46 23
Seat change Decrease10 Decrease10 Increase11
Popular vote 1,031,454 1,024,425 544,324
Percentage 31.2% 30.9% 16.4%
Swing Decrease6.7 pp Decrease6.8 pp Increase7.7 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Josep Piqué Joan Saura
Party PPC ICV–EUiA
Leader since 4 September 2003 26 November 2000
Last election 12 seats, 9.5% 3 seats, 3.9%[lower-alpha 1]
Seats won 15 9
Seat change Increase3 Increase6
Popular vote 393,499 241,163
Percentage 11.9% 7.3%
Swing Increase2.4 pp Increase3.4 pp

Graphic of the results in the Catalan Parliament election, 2003, based in constituencies.

President before election

Jordi Pujol
CiU

Elected President

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

The 2003 Catalan parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 16 November 2003, to elect the 7th Parliament of Catalonia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. At stake were all 135 seats in the Parliament, determining the President of Catalonia.

This election marked a change for all Catalan political parties due to Catalan President Jordi Pujol's decision not to seek a seventh term in office and to retire from active politics. The election results were a great disappointment for Pasqual Maragall's Socialists' Party of Catalonia, which again saw Convergence and Union winning a plurality of seats despite them winning the most votes by a margin of just 0.3%. Opinion polls earlier in the year had predicted a much larger victory for Maragall, but his lead over CiU had begun to narrow as the election grew nearer. ERC was the perceived true victor of the election, doubling its 1999 figures and scoring the best results in its recent history, both in terms of seats (23 of 135) and votes (16.4%), up from 11 seats and 8.7%.

As Pujol's successor Artur Mas did not won a majority large enough to renew his party pact with the People's Party of Catalonia, which had kept Pujol in power since 1995, an alliance between the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, Republican Left of Catalonia and Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left resulted in the Catalan tripartite government. Ironically, despite losing 10 seats and 150,000 votes respect to the 1999 election, Maragall became the first center-left President of Catalonia, ending with 23 years of Convergence and Union government.

Electoral system

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Catalonia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. As the community did not have an electoral law of its own passed into law at the time of the 2003 election, the electoral system came regulated under the community's Statute of Autonomy rules, and subsidiarily, under the Spanish general electoral law (Organic Law 5/1985, of the General Electoral Regime). As a result of the lack of an autonomous electoral law, seats were allocated to districts through specific Laws or Decrees for each election. For the 2003 election, seats were distributed as follows: Barcelona (85), Girona (17), Lleida (15) and Tarragona (18).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which includes blank ballotsfor none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.[2][3]

Background

The retirement of Jordi Pujol as CiU candidate paved the way for Artur Mas, then Chief Counsellor (Conseller en cap, akin to a Vice-president; he was known colloquially as the Dauphin), as the culmination of a long successory process.

In 1999, because of the PSC growth, Convergence and Union had lost the vote share for the first time, but had won the most seats due to the disproportionate allocation of seats in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona respect to Barcelona. Thanks to the support of the PPC, Pujol had been able to be re-elected to a sixth term in office. In spite of this, and despite Pujol's approval ratings remaining high, rumours about his possible retirement and a desire for change had resulted in CiU trailing the PSC in opinion polls for the entire legislature, with a lead nearly into the double digits by mid-to-late 2002. From mid-2003, however, the Socialist lead had begun to narrow to the point that speculation arose about a possible reenactment of the 1999 results.

ERC was in almost constant growth since the 1988 election, and had become a political force able to break through the dominant two-party system in Catalonia.

Initiative for Catalonia Greens and United and Alternative Left had run separately in the previous election, but ran together in a party coalition for this election.

Parties

Opinion polls

Vote

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.

Seat projections

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

Results

Overall

Summary of the 16 November 2003 Catalan Parliament election results
Party Vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Won +/−
Socialists' Party of Catalonia-Citizens for Change (PSC-CpC) 1,031,454 31.16 Decrease6.69 42 Decrease10
Convergence and Union (CiU) 1,024,425 30.94 Decrease6.76 46 Decrease10
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 544,324 16.44 Increase7.77 23 Increase11
People's Party of Catalonia (PPC) 393,499 11.89 Increase2.38 15 Increase3
Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV-EUiA)[lower-alpha 1] 241,163 7.28 Increase3.35 9 Increase6
The Greens-The Ecologist Alternative (EV-AE) 18,470 0.56 New 0 ±0
Platform for Catalonia (PxC) 4,892 0.15 New 0 ±0
Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI) 4,226 0.13 Increase0.04 0 ±0
Blank ballots 30,212 0.91 Decrease0.02
Total 3,310,483 100.00 135 ±0
Valid votes 3,310,483 99.74 Decrease0.01
Invalid votes 8,793 0.26 Increase0.01
Votes cast / turnout 3,319,276 62.54 Increase3.34
Abstentions 1,988,561 37.46 Decrease3.34
Registered voters 5,307,837
Source(s):
Vote share
PSC-CpC
 
31.16%
CiU
 
30.94%
ERC
 
16.44%
PPC
 
11.89%
ICV-EUiA
 
7.28%
Others
 
1.38%
Blank ballots
 
0.91%
Parliamentary seats
CiU
 
34.07%
PSC-CpC
 
31.11%
ERC
 
17.04%
PPC
 
11.11%
ICV-EUiA
 
6.67%

Results by province

Party BC GI LL TA Total
PSC S 29 4 4 5 42
V 33.2 23.7 22.5 28.2 31.2
CiU S 25 7 7 7 46
V 28.8 38.7 41.4 33.8 30.9
ERC S 13 4 3 3 23
V 15.2 21.9 19.9 19.0 16.4
PPC S 11 1 1 2 15
V 12.6 8.1 9.7 11.8 11.9
ICV-EUiA S 7 1 0 1 9
V 8.0 5.3 4.4 5.2 7.3
Others V 1.3 1.5 1.1 1.0 1.4
Blank 0.9 0.8 1.0 1.0 0.9
Total seats 85 17 15 18 135
Turnout 62.1 65.3 65.5 61.7 62.5

Results by comarques

Comarque PSC CiU ERC PPC ICV Lead Turnout
Alt Camp 23.9 40.6 21.8 7.8 4.2 −16.7 65.6
Alt Empordà 24.3 37.8 20.9 10.8 4.0 −13.5 63.7
Alt Penedès 27.5 37.8 20.2 7.5 5.4 −10.3 68.9
Alt Urgell 20.9 44.9 20.8 8.0 4.1 −24.0 64.7
Alta Ribagorça 32.1 42.2 13.7 6.2 3.8 −10.1 65.1
Anoia 29.0 35.7 18.6 9.6 5.2 −6.7 63.7
Bages 25.8 39.5 20.5 7.0 5.5 −13.7 66.5
Baix Camp 28.3 33.2 19.2 12.2 5.2 −4.9 59.2
Baix Ebre 28.0 30.6 23.8 9.7 5.5 −2.6 64.4
Baix Empordà 26.7 38.2 19.6 7.7 5.4 −11.5 64.5
Baix Llobregat 40.6 22.6 12.1 12.8 9.3 +18.0 59.4
Baix Penedès 33.8 32.5 14.2 12.4 4.8 +1.3 58.8
Barcelonès 33.9 26.2 14.0 14.9 8.7 +7.7 63.8
Berguedà 22.6 43.3 23.6 5.4 3.6 −19.7 70.8
Cerdanya 18.6 43.4 22.8 9.1 3.7 −20.6 63.3
Conca de Barberà 16.9 42.2 28.4 6.5 4.4 −13.8 68.8
Garraf 33.1 29.7 15.3 13.1 6.9 +3.4 60.5
Garrigues 18.2 45.7 24.7 6.5 3.4 −21.0 73.2
Garrotxa 18.6 45.5 24.4 5.0 4.4 −21.1 72.3
Gironès 25.3 33.6 23.4 8.3 6.9 −8.3 67.5
Maresme 26.8 35.3 17.3 11.8 6.6 −8.5 64.3
Montsià 26.4 37.6 20.7 8.3 5.1 −11.2 65.2
Noguera 19.0 45.9 20.6 9.1 3.5 −25.3 71.9
Osona 15.7 44.6 28.0 5.0 4.5 −16.6 72.7
Pallars Jussà 24.7 46.4 17.7 5.4 4.3 −21.7 68.4
Pallars Sobirà 24.4 45.5 19.4 5.0 4.3 −21.1 72.3
Pla de l'Estany 12.9 45.5 29.7 5.3 4.7 −15.8 71.7
Pla d'Urgell 19.5 46.1 22.2 7.0 3.6 −23.9 73.3
Priorat 20.3 38.6 29.4 5.4 4.8 −9.2 76.1
Ribera d'Ebre 23.7 37.2 26.3 6.5 4.8 −10.9 73.7
Ripollès 20.1 45.8 22.4 4.7 4.6 −23.4 72.9
Segarra 13.9 41.5 27.2 8.9 3.9 −14.3 70.3
Segrià 26.3 37.1 17.1 12.1 5.2 −11.0 63.1
Selva 25.0 38.9 19.9 8.5 5.6 −13.9 62.2
Solsonès 14.8 49.4 24.5 5.8 3.5 −24.9 71.4
Tarragonès 30.9 30.4 15.0 15.9 5.9 +0.5 60.0
Terra Alta 23.2 43.9 16.9 11.3 3.2 −20.7 76.8
Urgell 17.4 42.8 25.5 8.6 3.7 −17.3 70.7
Val d'Aran 35.8 37.4 7.3 13.9 3.1 −1.6 59.3
Vallès Occidental 35.6 27.7 14.5 11.1 8.7 +7.9 60.4
Vallès Oriental 31.3 33.4 16.0 10.3 7.1 −2.1 62.1
Barcelona 33.2 28.8 15.2 12.6 8.0 +4.4 62.1
Girona 23.7 38.7 21.9 8.1 5.3 −15.0 65.3
Lleida 22.5 41.4 19.9 9.7 4.4 −18.9 65.5
Tarragona 28.2 33.8 19.0 11.8 5.2 −5.6 61.7
TOTAL 31.2 30.9 16.4 11.9 7.3 +0.3 62.5

Post-election

Investiture voting

16 December 2003
Investiture voting for Pasqual Maragall (PSC)

Absolute majority: 68/135
Vote Parties Votes
Yes Yes PSC (42), ERC (23), ICV (9)
74 / 135
No CiU (46), PP (15)
61 / 135
Abstentions
0 / 135
Source: Historia Electoral

Notes

  1. 1 2 Compared to the Initiative for Catalonia Greens+United and Alternative Left results in the 1999 election.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 This poll provides data ranges, approximations and/or various electoral scenario hypotheses calculated using similar weighting parameters. In order to simplify, the average of these data is given.

References

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