1977 Spanish general election


A general election was held in Spain on Wednesday, 15 June 1977, to elect the members of the Spanish Cortes Generales. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 207 seats in the Senate.
It was the first free election held in Spain since 1936, prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It was called by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez as part of the political reform of the Francoist regime, ongoing since shortly after Francisco Franco's death in 1975 and promoted by his successor, King Juan Carlos I. Its aim was to elect a Constituent Cortes that was to draft a new constitution, which would ultimately lead to the repealing of the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and the culmination of the country's transition to democracy.
The Union of the Democratic Centre, the electoral alliance created to serve as Suárez's political platform in government, emerged as the largest political force overall, albeit 11 seats short of an absolute majority. The election surprise was the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Felipe González, which—supported by the German SPD and running a campaign intended to highlight González's youth and charisma—won 118 seats and became the main left-of-centre party by a wide margin. The Communist Party of Spain, which had been the main opposition force to the dictatorship, and the right-wing People's Alliance of former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga, performed below expectations. Turnout was high at 78.8%, the second highest for any nationwide election held ever since.

Background

The death of Francisco Franco in 1975 paved the way for Spain's transition from an autocratic, one-party dictatorship into a democratic, constitutional monarchy. As per the 1947 Succession Law, the Spanish monarchy was restored under the figure of Juan Carlos I, who quickly became the promoter of a peaceful democratic reform of state institutions. This move was supported by western countries, an important sector of Spanish and international capitalism, a majority of the opposition to Francoism—organized into the Democratic Convergence Platform and the Democratic Junta, which in 1976 would both merge into the Democratic Coordination—and a growing part of the Franco regime itself, weary of popular mobilization after the outcome of the Carnation Revolution in neighbouring Portugal in 1974. However, the incumbent prime minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, rejected any major transformation of the Spanish political system and rather supported the preservation of Francoist laws, resulting in his dismissal by the King in July 1976, who appointed Adolfo Suárez for the post.
Suárez's plans for political reform involved the transformation of Spanish institutions in accordance to the Francoist legal system through the approval of a "political reform bill" as a Fundamental Law of the Realm. This was meant as a step beyond Arias Navarro's plans to update—but preserve—the Francoist regime, with Suárez intending to implement democracy "from law to law through law"—in the words of Torcuato Fernández-Miranda—without the outright liquidation of the Francoist system as called for by opposition parties. Thus, on 18 November 1976, the Political Reform Law was passed by the Francoist Cortes, later ratified in a referendum on 15 December with overwhelming popular support. As set out in Suárez's scheme, the Law called for an electoral process to elect new Cortes that were to be responsible for drafting a democratic constitution.

Overview

Under the 1977 Political Reform Law, the Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as a provisional assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution that would replace the Fundamental Laws of the Realm. Initiative for constitutional amendment belonged to the Congress of Deputies, as well as to the national government. Constitutional bills required to be passed by an absolute majority in both the Congress and Senate. If the Senate rejected the bill as passed by Congress, discrepancies were to be submitted to a mixed commission and, if the deadlock persisted, a joint sitting of both chambers would convene as a single legislative body in order to resolve on the issue by an absolute majority.

Electoral system

Voting for each chamber of the Cortes was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 21 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.
The Congress of Deputies was entitled to a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 seats, with the electoral law setting its size at 350. 348 members were elected in 50 multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Spain, with each being allocated an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 being distributed in proportion to their populations, at a rate of approximately one seat per each 144,500 inhabitants or fraction greater than 70,000—using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes being applied in each constituency. The two remaining seats were allocated to Ceuta and Melilla as single-member districts and elected using plurality voting. The use of the electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:
SeatsConstituencies
33Barcelona
32Madrid
15Valencia
12Seville
10Biscay, Oviedo
9Alicante, La Coruña
8Cádiz, Málaga, Murcia, Pontevedra, Zaragoza
7Badajoz, Córdoba, Granada, Guipúzcoa, Jaén, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
6Balearics, Las Palmas, León
5Almería, Cáceres, Castellón, Ciudad Real, Gerona, Huelva, Lugo, Navarre, Orense, Santander, Tarragona, Toledo, Valladolid
4Álava, Albacete, Burgos, Cuenca, Lérida, Logroño, Salamanca, Zamora
3Ávila, Guadalajara, Huesca, Palencia, Segovia, Soria, Teruel

207 seats in the Senate were elected using an open list partial block voting system: in constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger being allocated three seats each, and the smaller one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, the King could appoint senators in a number not higher than one-fifth of the elected seats.
The law provided for by-elections to fill seats vacated in the Congress only when the results in a particular constituency were annulled by a final court's decision deriving from the election's legal challenge procedures; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes. Additionally for the Senate, by-elections were mandated to fill any seat vacated up to two years into the legislative term.

Eligibility

Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election. Causes of ineligibility were imposed were imposed on the following officials:
Other causes of ineligibility for both chambers were imposed on a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned categories—during their tenure of office—in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction. Incompatibility provisions extended to the impossibility of simultaneously holding the positions of deputy and senator.
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one permille—and, in any case, 500 signatures—of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.

Parties and candidates

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