A general election was held in Spain on 15 June 1977 to elect the members of the Spanish . 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 (UCD), 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 (PSOE) of Felipe González, whichâÂÂsupported by the German SPD and running a campaign intended to highlight González's youth and charismaâÂÂwon 118 seats and became the main left-of-centre party by a wide margin. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which had been the main opposition force to the dictatorship, and the right-wing People's Alliance (AP) 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.
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 FrancoismâÂÂorganized into the Democratic Convergence Platform and the Democratic Junta, which in 1976 would both merge into the Democratic CoordinationâÂÂand 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 updateâÂÂbut preserveâÂÂthe Francoist regime, with Suárez intending to implement democracy "from law to law through law"âÂÂin the words of Torcuato Fernández-MirandaâÂÂwithout 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 , 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 that were to be responsible for drafting a democratic constitution.
Under the 1977 Political Reform Law, the Spanish were conceived as a provisional assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution to replace the Fundamental Laws of the Realm. The initiative for constitutional amendment belonged to the Congress of Deputies and the national government, and constitutional bills had to be passed by an absolute majority in both the Congress and the Senate. If the Senate rejected a bill approved by Congress, the disagreement was to be examined by a mixed commission and, if the deadlock continued, both chambers would meet in a joint sitting as a single legislative body to decide the issue by absolute majority.
Voting for each chamber of the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 21 years of age with full civil and political rights.
The Congress of Deputies had 350 seats in its first election. Of these, 348 were elected in 50 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the provinces of SpainâÂÂeach of which was assigned an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 distributed in proportion to population, roughly one seat per 144,500 inhabitants or fraction above 70,000âÂÂusing the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. The remaining two seats were allocated to Ceuta and Melilla as single-member districts elected by plurality voting. The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:
207 Senate seats were elected using open-list partial block voting: in constituencies electing four seats, voters could choose up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, up to two; and in single-member districts, one. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, while in insular provincesâÂÂsuch as the Balearic and Canary IslandsâÂÂthe districts were the islands themselves, with the larger ones (Mallorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife) being allocated three seats each, and the smaller ones (Menorca, IbizaâÂÂFormentera, Fuerteventura, La GomeraâÂÂEl Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma) one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, the monarch could directly appoint a number of senators not higher than one-fifth of the elected seats.
The law provided for by-elections to fill vacant seats in the Congress only when results in a constituency were annulled by a final court ruling following an electoral petition; otherwise, vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes. Additionally for the Senate, by-elections were required to fill any seat vacated within the first two years of the legislative term.
Spanish citizens of legal age and with the right to vote could run for election. Causes of ineligibility applied to the following officials:
Other ineligibility provisions also applied to a number of territorial officials in these categories within their areas of jurisdiction. Incompatibility rules prohibited the simultaneous holding of 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 permilleâÂÂand, in any case, 500 signaturesâÂÂof the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
Legislation
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