A regional election was held in the Valencian Community on 10 June 1987 to elect the 2nd of the autonomous community. All 89 seats in the were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain, as well as the 1987 European Parliament election.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), suffering from a strong loss of popular support, lost 9 seats together with the absolute majority it had achieved in 1983. However, the PSOE remained as the largest party by a great margin due to the splitting up of the vote between the opposition parties. Incumbent President Joan Lerma was able to retain government thanks to the support of the IU-UPV alliance, and went on to form a minority government.
The People's Coalition had broken up after the 1986 general election. As a result, the People's Alliance (AP) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) contested the election separately. AP, with future Mayoress of Valencia Rita Barberá as regional candidate, scored slightly less than 24% of the vote and lost 2 seats compared to the combined totals for the AP-PDP-UL coalition in 1983, while the PDP was swept out of the entirely.
On the other hand, the election saw an increase of support for minor parties: Centrist Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) experienced a significant increase of its popular support and became the third political force in the region with over 10% of the share. The regionalist right-wing Valencian Union (UV), which ran separately for the first time, won 6 seats to the 5 it had obtained within the People's Coalition in 1983. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE), which had formed the electoral alliance United Left (IU) in April 1986 with other smaller left-wing parties across Spain, stood in coalition with the regional Valencian People's Unity (UPV) and won 6 seats.
Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the were the unicameral legislature of the Valencian Community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president.
Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Valencian Community and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final court ruling, nor being legally incapacitated.
The had a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 100 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at 89. All were elected in three multi-member constituenciesâÂÂcorresponding to the provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 29 distributed in proportion to population (with the seat-to-population ratio in any given province not exceeding three times that of any other)âÂÂusing the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) regionally.
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each constituency was entitled the following seats:
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any 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.
The term of the expired four years after the date of their previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of the Valencian Government (DOGV), with election day taking place between the fifty-fourth and the sixtieth day from publication. The previous election was held on 8 May 1983, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 8 May 1987. The election decree was required to be published in the DOGV no later than 14 April 1987, with the election taking place up to the sixtieth day from publication, setting the latest possible date for election day on 13 June 1987.
The could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament.
The were officially dissolved on 14 April 1987 with the publication of the dissolution decree in the DOGV, setting election day for 10 June and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 2 July.
The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.
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 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.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
The tables below list opinion polling results 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 poll.
The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 45 seats were required for an absolute majority in the .
Opinion poll sources
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