A regional election was held in Aragon on 26 May 1991 to elect the 3rd of the autonomous community. All 67 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.
The main loser in the election was the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), which lost all of its 6 seats. The Aragonese Party (PAR) also lost two seats. The main gainers were the main two national parties, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the newly created People's Party (PP). United Left also gained 1 seat.
The new legislature elected Emilio Eiroa of the PAR as the new President of Aragon by 34 votes to 33, after Hipólito Gómez de las Roces' refusal to reach a new agreement with the PP. All PAR and PP deputies supported Eiroa's election while the PSOE and IU deputies voted against. The tight arithmetic in the new legislature was further complicated in November 1992 when a PP deputy, Emilio Gomáriz, resigned from the PP, leaving him holding the balance of power between the PP-PAR bloc and the PSOE-IU bloc. In September 1993 the PSOE introduced a no-confidence motion against President Eiroa. In the subsequent vote Gomáriz appeared visibly nervous and claimed that he had received death threats against his children. He voted with the PSOE and IU deputies for Socialist José Marco as new President.
Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the Cortes of Aragon were the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous 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 Aragon 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 of Aragon had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 75 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at 67. All were elected in three multi-member constituenciesâÂÂcorresponding to the provinces of Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 13 seats and the remaining 28 distributed in proportion to population (with the seat-to-population ratio in the most populated province not exceeding 2.75 times that of the least populated one)âÂÂusing the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. 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 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 of Aragon expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary election, with amendments earlier in 1991 fixing election day for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The election decree was required to be issued between the fifty-fourth and sixtieth day prior to the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA). The previous election was held on 10 June 1987, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 26 May 1991.
The of Aragon could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament, except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the 's reconvening. In such a case, the chamber was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term.
The election to the of Aragon was officially called on 2 April 1991 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOA, setting election day for 26 May.
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; 34 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Cortes of Aragon.
The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.
Opinion poll sources
Other