A general election was held in Spain on 1 March 1979 to elect the members of the 1st under the Spanish Constitution of 1978. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 208 seats in the Senate. This was the first election held under the new constitution that had been approved in a referendum on 6 December 1978 and which had lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, resulting in an increase of the electoral roll by three million people.
The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) remained the largest party, winning 168 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 119 of the 208 seats in the Senate. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had merged with the People's Socialist Party (PSP) and was widely expected to make large gainsâÂÂwith some opinion polls predicting a narrow winâÂÂfell short of expectations and lost ground when compared to the combined totals for the PSOEâÂÂPSP alliance in the 1977 election. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) obtained the best result in its history, whereas Manuel Fraga's Democratic Coalition (CD)âÂÂan electoral bloc formed by the People's Alliance (AP), the Liberal Citizens Action (ACL) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP)âÂÂlost nearly half of its seats. The election would also see the best showing of the far-right in Spain until the April 2019 election, as Blas Piñar-led National Union (UN) would secure one seat with 2.1% of the vote share.
As a result of the election, Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez went on to form a minority government, depending on support from the CD and other minor parties such as the Socialist Party of AndalusiaâÂÂAndalusian Party (PSAâÂÂPA), the Regionalist Aragonese Party (PAR) and the Navarrese People's Union (UPN).
Under the 1978 Constitution, the Spanish were conceived as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies held greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority. Nonetheless, the Senate retained a limited number of specific functionsâÂÂsuch as ratifying international treaties, authorizing cooperation agreements between autonomous communities, enforcing direct rule, regulating interterritorial compensation funds, and taking part in constitutional amendments and in the appointment of members to the Constitutional Court and the General Council of the JudiciaryâÂÂwhich were not subject to override by Congress.
Voting for each chamber of the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age with full political rights.
The Congress of Deputies had a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at 350. 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 to the following seats:
208 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 Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma) one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator for every million inhabitants.
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 term of the elected in the 1977 election was not to be continued beyond 15 June 1981, in the event they were not dissolved earlier. An election was required to be held within from 30 to 60 days after the scheduled expiration date of parliament, setting the latest possible date for election day on 14 August 1981.
The prime minister had the prerogative to propose the monarch to dissolve both chambers at any given timeâÂÂeither jointly or separatelyâÂÂand call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved, and a new election called, if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barring this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections to the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of , there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.
The were officially dissolved on 1 January 1979 with the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official State Gazette (BOE), setting election day for 1 March. The Congress and the Senate were scheduled to reconvene on 23 and 27 March, respectively.
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:
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