2006 Catalan regional election

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2006 Catalan regional election

← 2003 1 November 2006 2010 →

All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia
68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered 5,321,274 Green Arrow Up Darker.svg0.3%
Turnout 2,982,108 (56.0%)
Red Arrow Down.svg6.5 pp
  First party Second party Third party
  170x170px José Montilla 2008 (cropped).jpg 170x170px
Leader Artur Mas José Montilla Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira
Party CiU PSCCpC ERC
Leader since 7 January 2002 15 July 2006 25 November 1996
Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona
Last election 46 seats, 30.9% 42 seats, 31.2% 23 seats, 16.4%
Seats won 48 37 21
Seat change Green Arrow Up Darker.svg2 Red Arrow Down.svg5 Red Arrow Down.svg2
Popular vote 935,756 796,173 416,355
Percentage 31.5% 26.8% 14.0%
Swing Green Arrow Up Darker.svg0.6 pp Red Arrow Down.svg4.4 pp Red Arrow Down.svg2.4 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  170x170px 170x170px 170x170px
Leader Josep Piqué Joan Saura Albert Rivera
Party PPC ICV–EUiA C's
Leader since 4 September 2003 26 November 2000 9 July 2006
Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona
Last election 15 seats, 11.9% 9 seats, 7.3% Did not contest
Seats won 14 12 3
Seat change Red Arrow Down.svg1 Green Arrow Up Darker.svg3 Green Arrow Up Darker.svg3
Popular vote 316,222 282,693 89,840
Percentage 10.7% 9.5% 3.0%
Swing Red Arrow Down.svg1.2 pp Green Arrow Up Darker.svg2.2 pp New party

275px
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Catalonia

President before election

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

Elected President

José Montilla
PSC

The 2006 Catalan regional election was held on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, to elect the 8th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

This was a snap election, called roughly one year before the scheduled end of the legislature as a result of the uneasy and controversial drafting of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which further expanded the authority of the Catalan Government. The statutory amendment had been ratified in a referendum on 18 June 2006 after being approved in the Cortes Generales, with roughly 74% of voters in favour of the new Statute and 21% against. The referendum was noted for its low turnout, as only 48.9% of all registered voters had cast a vote.[1][2]

Since the 2003 election a left-of-centre coalition of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA) had been in power, with Pasqual Maragall as Catalan president. In May 2006, ERC had left the coalition after internal tensions due to its disagreement on the final draft of the Statute of Autonomy approved by the Spanish parliament, thus leaving Maragall without a majority and precipitating the early election call. On 21 June 2006 Maragall announced his will not to seek re-election, arguably due to the political erosion his government had suffered after their uneasy relationship with ERC, as well as his political differences with Spanish Prime Minister and PSOE Secretary-General José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.[3]

Unlike the previous elections in 1999 and 2003, when Convergence and Union (CiU) had achieved a plurality of seats in the autonomous Parliament despite narrowly losing it out in the popular vote to the PSC, in the 2006 election CiU emerged as the most popular party both in votes and seats, but fell far short of an absolute majority. After coalition negotiations, the PSC, ERC and ICV–EUiA agreed to renew the three-party coalition that had been in power in the 2003–2006 period, this time under the leadership of the new PSC leader, José Montilla. The election also saw a new party, Citizens (C's) entering the autonomous parliament, resulting in six political parties achieving parliamentary representation in the Catalan parliament for the first time since 1988.

Overview

Electoral system

The Parliament of Catalonia was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president.[4]

As a result of no regional electoral law having been approved since the re-establishment of Catalan autonomy, the electoral procedure came regulated under Transitory Provision Fourth of the 1979 Statute, supplemented by the provisions within the Organic Law of General Electoral Regime.[lower-alpha 1] Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in Catalonia and in full enjoyment of their political rights. The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, with each being allocated a fixed number of seats: 85 for Barcelona, 17 for Girona, 15 for Lleida and 18 for Tarragona.[4][5]

The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.[6]

Election date

The term of the Parliament of Catalonia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The regional president was required to call an election fifteen days prior to the date of expiry of parliament, with election day taking place within from forty to sixty days after the call. The previous election was held on 16 November 2003, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 16 November 2007. The election was required to be called no later than 1 November 2007, with it taking place up to the sixtieth day from the call, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Monday, 31 December 2007.[4]

The president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous one under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.[4]

Parliamentary status

The Parliament of Catalonia was officially dissolved on 8 September 2006, after the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official Journal of the Government of Catalonia.[7] The table below shows the status of the different parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.[8][9][10]

Parliamentary composition in September 2006[11]
Groups Parties Legislators
Seats Total
Convergence and Union's Parliamentary Group CDC 33 46
UDC 13
Socialists–Citizens for Change Parliamentary Group PSC 32 42
bgcolor="Template:Citizens for Change/meta/color"| CpC 10
Republican Left of Catalonia's Parliamentary Group ERC 23 23
People's Party of Catalonia's Parliamentary Group PP 15 15
rowspan="2" bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| Initiative for Catalonia Greens–Alternative Left's
Parliamentary Group
ICV 8 9
bgcolor="Template:United and Alternative Left/meta/color"| EUiA 1

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.[12]

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

Candidacy Parties and
alliances
Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Gov. Ref.
Votes (%) Seats
PSCCpC José Montilla 2008 (cropped).jpg José Montilla Social democracy 31.16% 42 YesY [13]
CiU 50px Artur Mas Catalan nationalism
Centrism
30.94% 46 N [14]
ERC 50px Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Catalan independence
Social democracy
16.44% 23 N [15]
[16]
PP
List
50px Josep Piqué Conservatism
Christian democracy
11.89% 15 N [17]
bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| ICV–EUiA 50px Joan Saura Regionalism
Eco-socialism
Green politics
7.28% 9 YesY
C's 50px Albert Rivera Social liberalism Did not contest N [18]

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

Color key:

      Exit poll

Results

Overall

Summary of the 1 November 2006 Parliament of Catalonia election results
Parties and coalitions Popular vote Seats
Votes  % ±pp Total +/−
Convergence and Union (CiU) 935,756 31.52 +0.58 48 +2
Socialists' Party of CataloniaCitizens for Change (PSC–CpC) 796,173 26.82 –4.34 37 –5
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 416,355 14.03 –2.41 21 –2
People's Party (PP) 316,222 10.65 –1.24 14 –1
bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA) 282,693 9.52 +2.24 12 +3
Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (C's) 89,840 3.03 New 3 +3
bgcolor="Template:The Greens–The Ecologist Alternative/meta/color"| The Greens–Ecologists and Greens of Catalonia (EV–EVC) 17,900 0.60 +0.04 0 ±0
Anti-Bullfighting Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) 13,730 0.46 New 0 ±0
Unsubmissive Seats–Alternative of Discontented Democrats (Ei–ADD) 6,922 0.23 +0.16 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Catalan Republican Party/meta/color"| Catalan Republican Party (RC) 6,024 0.20 New 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party/meta/color"| Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI) 5,632 0.19 +0.06 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Communist Party of the Catalan People/meta/color"| Communist Party of the Catalan People (PCPC) 4,798 0.16 +0.08 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:The Greens–Green Alternative/meta/color"| The Greens–Green Alternative (EV–AV) 3,228 0.11 +0.05 0 ±0
Family and Life Party (PFiV) 2,776 0.09 New 0 ±0
Forward Catalonia Platform (AESDN) 2,735 0.09 New 0 ±0
Humanist Party of Catalonia (PHC) 2,608 0.09 +0.04 0 ±0
Republican Social Movement (MSR) 1,096 0.04 +0.02 0 ±0
Carmel/Blue Party (PAzul) 1,039 0.04 New 0 ±0
For a Fairer World (PUM+J) 945 0.03 New 0 ±0
Catalonia Decides (Decideix.cat) 668 0.02 New 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Citizens for Blank Votes/meta/color"| Citizens for Blank Votes (CenB) 626 0.02 +0.01 0 ±0
Republican Left–Left Republican Party (IR–PRE) 524 0.02 –0.03 0 ±0
Blank ballots 60,244 2.03 +1.12
Total 2,968,534 135 ±0
Valid votes 2,968,534 99.54 –0.20
Invalid votes 13,574 0.46 +0.20
Votes cast / turnout 2,982,108 56.04 –6.50
Abstentions 2,339,166 43.96 +6.50
Registered voters 5,321,274
Sources[8][19][20]
Popular vote
CiU
  
31.52%
PSCCpC
  
26.82%
ERC
  
14.03%
PP
  
10.65%
ICV–EUiA
  
9.52%
C's
  
3.03%
Others
  
2.40%
Blank ballots
  
2.03%
Seats
CiU
  
35.56%
PSCCpC
  
27.41%
ERC
  
15.56%
PP
  
10.37%
ICV–EUiA
  
8.89%
C's
  
2.22%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency CiU PSCCpC ERC PP ICV–EUiA C's
colspan="2" style="background:Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"|
 % S  % S  % S  % S  % S  % S
Barcelona 29.9 27 27.9 25 12.6 11 11.2 10 10.4 9 3.5 3
Girona 38.2 7 22.1 4 19.2 4 7.2 1 7.6 1 0.9
Lleida 40.0 7 22.0 3 17.7 3 9.1 1 6.6 1 1.0
Tarragona 32.4 7 26.0 5 17.6 3 11.0 2 6.5 1 2.4
Total 31.5 48 26.8 37 14.0 21 10.7 14 9.5 12 3.0 3
Sources[8][20]

Aftermath

Investiture
José Montilla (PSC)
Ballot → 24 November 2006
Required majority → 68 out of 135 YesY
Yes
70 / 135
No
65 / 135
Abstentions
0 / 135
Absentees
0 / 135
Sources[8]

Notes

  1. Transitory Provision Second of the 2006 Statute maintained the validity of the electoral regulations within the 1979 Statute, of application for as long as a specific law regulating the procedures for elections to the Parliament of Catalonia was not approved.

References

Opinion poll sources
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Other
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  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ley Orgánica 6/2006, de 19 de julio, de reforma del Estatuto de Autonomía de Cataluña, Organic Law No. 6 of 19 July 2006 Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish)
  5. Ley Orgánica 4/1979, de 18 de diciembre, de Estatuto de Autonomía de Cataluña, Organic Law No. 4 of 18 December 1979 Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish)
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  12. Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General, Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985 Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish)
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