2012 Catalan regional election

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in Module:Infobox at line 271: malformed pattern (missing ']'). The 2012 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 25 November 2012, to elect the 10th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was a snap election, announced on 25 September by President Artur Mas following the pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona on 11 September—the National Day of Catalonia—and the failed talks between President Mas and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to give greater fiscal autonomy to Catalonia.[1][2]

Despite Artur Mas campaigning to win an absolute majority of seats, Convergence and Union (CiU) suffered an electoral setback which had went largely unnoticed by opinion polls. The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) also fared poorly, obtaining fewer seats than pro-independence Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and ending up as the third parliamentary force overall. In turn, ERC regained much of the strength it had loss in the 2010 election and became the main parliamentary opposition party for the first time. The People's Party (PP) and Citizens (C's) benefitted from the electoral polarization between the pro-independence and anti-independence blocs, scoring their best results until then, with 19 and 9 seats, respectively. The Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) also entered the Parliament for the first time.[3]

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. Amendments to the electoral law in 2011 required for Catalans abroad to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote (Spanish: Voto rogado).[5] 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][6]

The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.[7]

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 28 November 2010, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 28 November 2014. The election was required to be called no later than 13 November 2014, with it taking place up to the sixtieth day from the call, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Monday, 12 January 2015.[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]

Background

In the 2010 election, Convergence and Union (CiU) was returned to power after 7 years in opposition, as a result of the electoral collapse of all three parties comprising the "Catalan tripartite" government (Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV). Newly-elected Catalan president Artur Mas was able to govern comfortably thanks to his party's large parliamentary representation allowing for punctual support of several parties on different issues, in what was known as a policy of "variable geometry".[8][9] In 2011, CiU signed several agreements with the People's Party (PP) in order to pass the 2011 and 2012 budgets, as well as for the approval of several spending cuts. In spite of this, the relationship between both parties quickly deteriorated after the 2011 general election, as a result of Mas asking new Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy for greater fiscal autonomy for Catalonia.[10][11]

On 11 September 2012, a massive pro-independence demonstration marked the Catalan political agenda and re-opened the debate about the right to hold a referendum on the independence of Catalonia,[12][13][14] as well as the debate about the feasibility of an independent Catalan state and its integration into the European Union. On 25 September 2012, President Artur Mas announced a snap regional election to be held on 25 November and argued, referring to the demonstration, that "this election will not be held to help a party to perpetuate itself in power. It will be held so that the whole of the Catalan population decides democratically and peacefully what will their future be as a nation."[15] President Mas signed the decree to officially call the Catalan election on 1 October.[16] Mas' move was criticized as an attempt to try to funnel the popular support for independence seen in the September demonstration into an absolute majority of seats in the election.[17]

Parliamentary status

The Parliament of Catalonia was officially dissolved on 2 October 2012, after the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official Journal of the Government of Catalonia.[18] The table below shows the status of the different parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.[19][20][21]

Parliamentary composition in October 2012[22]
Groups Parties Legislators
Seats Total
Convergence and Union's Parliamentary Group CDC 45 62
UDC 17
Socialist Parliamentary Group PSC 28 28
People's Party of Catalonia's Parliamentary Group PP 18 18
rowspan="2" bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and
Alternative Left's Parliamentary Group		 ICV 8 10
bgcolor="Template:United and Alternative Left/meta/color"| EUiA 2
Republican Left of Catalonia's Parliamentary Group ERC 10 10
Mixed Group SI 3 6
Cs 3
Non-Inscrits DCat 1[lower-alpha 2] 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.[24]

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
CiU
List
 Artur Mas 2012 (cropped).jpg Artur Mas Catalan nationalism
Centrism		 38.43% 62 YesY [25]
PSC–PSOE
List
 Pere Navarro 2012b (cropped).jpg Pere Navarro Social democracy 18.38% 28 N [26]
PP
List
 Alicia Sánchez-Camacho (cropped).jpg Alicia Sánchez-Camacho Conservatism
Christian democracy		 12.37% 18 N [27]
bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| ICV–EUiA
List
 Joan Herrera 2010 (cropped).jpg Joan Herrera Regionalism
Eco-socialism
Green politics		 7.37% 10 N [28]
ERC–CatSí
List
 Oriol Junqueras 2012 (cropped).jpg Oriol Junqueras Catalan independence
Social democracy		 7.00% 10 N [29]
[30]
C's
List
 50px Albert Rivera Social liberalism 3.39% 3 N [31]
SI
List
 50px Alfons López Tena Catalan independence 3.29% 4 N [32]
CUP
List
 50px David Fernàndez Catalan independence
Anti-capitalism
Socialism		 Did not contest N [33]

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:

      Poll conducted after legal ban on opinion polls       Exit poll

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 25 November 2012 Parliament of Catalonia election results →
300px
Parties and coalitions Popular vote Seats
Votes  % ±pp Total +/−
Convergence and Union (CiU) 1,116,259 30.71 –7.72 50 –12
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) 524,707 14.43 –3.95 20 –8
Republican Left of Catalonia–Catalonia Yes (ERC–CatSí) 498,124 13.70 +6.70 21 +11
People's Party (PP) 471,681 12.98 +0.61 19 +1
bgcolor="Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"| Initiative for Catalonia Greens–United and Alternative Left (ICV–EUiA) 359,705 9.90 +2.53 13 +3
Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (C's) 275,007 7.57 +4.18 9 +6
Popular Unity Candidacy–Left Alternative (CUP) 126,435 3.48 New 3 +3
Platform for Catalonia (PxC) 60,107 1.65 –0.75 0 ±0
Catalan Solidarity for Independence (SI) 46,838 1.29 –2.00 0 –4
Blank Seats (EB) 28,288 0.78 +0.18 0 ±0
Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA) 20,861 0.57 +0.12 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Pirates of Catalonia/meta/color"| Pirates of Catalonia (Pirata.cat) 18,219 0.50 +0.29 0 ±0
Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) 14,614 0.40 +0.23 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Hartos.org/meta/color"| Hartos.org (Hartos.org) 11,702 0.32 New 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Democratic Way (Spain)/meta/color"| Democratic Way (VD) 5,984 0.16 New 0 ±0
Communist Unification of Spain (UCE) 2,582 0.07 +0.04 0 ±0
Republican Left (IR) 826 0.02 –0.03 0 ±0
bgcolor="Template:Socialists and Republicans (Spain)/meta/color"| Socialists and Republicans (SyR) 333 0.01 New 0 ±0
Blank ballots 52,898 1.46 –1.47
Total 3,635,170 135 ±0
Valid votes 3,635,170 99.10 –0.19
Invalid votes 33,140 0.90 +0.19
Votes cast / turnout 3,668,310 67.76 +8.98
Abstentions 1,745,558 32.24 –8.98
Registered voters 5,413,868
Sources[19][34][35]
Popular vote
CiU
  
 30.71%
PSC–PSOE
  
 14.43%
ERC–CatSí
  
 13.70%
PP
  
 12.98%
ICV–EUiA
  
 9.90%
C's
  
 7.57%
CUP
  
 3.48%
PxC
  
 1.65%
SI
  
 1.29%
Others
  
 2.84%
Blank ballots
  
 1.46%
Seats
CiU
  
 37.04%
ERC–CatSí
  
 15.56%
PSC–PSOE
  
 14.81%
PP
  
 14.07%
ICV–EUiA
  
 9.63%
C's
  
 6.67%
CUP
  
 2.22%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency CiU PSC ERC PP ICV–EUiA C's CUP
colspan="2" style="background:Template:ICV–EUiA/meta/color"|
 % S  % S  % S  % S  % S  % S  % S
Barcelona 28.1 26 15.4 14 12.7 12 13.3 12 11.1 10 8.4 8 3.4 3
Girona 43.0 9 10.1 2 17.8 3 9.6 2 5.9 1 3.6 − 4.2 −
Lleida 43.1 8 10.4 1 17.4 3 11.3 2 5.4 1 3.3 − 3.0 −
Tarragona 31.7 7 13.6 3 15.1 3 15.0 3 6.9 1 7.3 1 3.6 −
Total 30.7 50 14.4 20 13.7 21 13.0 19 9.9 13 7.6 9 3.5 3
Sources[19][35]

Aftermath

Investiture
Artur Mas (CiU)
Ballot → 21 December 2012
Required majority → 68 out of 135 YesY
Yes
71 / 135
No
63 / 135
Abstentions
0 / 135
Absentees
  • • PP (1)
1 / 135
Sources[19]

Notes

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

References

Opinion poll sources

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />
Other

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />
  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  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. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 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)
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 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)
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.


Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "lower-alpha", but no corresponding <references group="lower-alpha"/> tag was found, or a closing </ref> is missing
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "p", but no corresponding <references group="p"/> tag was found, or a closing </ref> is missing

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=2012_Catalan_regional_election&oldid=726182469"