Spanish general election, 2004

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Spanish general election, 2004
← 2000 14 March 2004 2008 →
All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 (of the 259) seats in the Senate
176 seats needed for a majority in the Congress of Deputies
Opinion polls
Registered 34,571,831 Increase1.8%
Turnout 26,155,436 (75.7%)
Increase7.0 pp
  First party Second party Third party
  José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero 2005 (cropped).jpg 170x170px Gaspar Llamazares 2011 (cropped).jpg
Leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Mariano Rajoy Gaspar Llamazares
Party PSOE PP IU
Leader since 22 July 2000 2 September 2003 29 October 2000
Leader's seat Madrid Madrid Madrid
Last election 125 seats, 34.2% 183 seats, 44.5% 9 seats, 6.0%[lower-alpha 1]
Seats won 164 148 5
Seat change Increase39 Decrease35 Decrease4
Popular vote 11,026,163 9,763,144 1,284,081
Percentage 42.6% 37.7% 5.0%
Swing Increase8.4 pp Decrease6.8 pp Decrease1.0 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida 2011 (cropped).jpg 170x170px Josu Erkoreka 2009 (cropped).jpg
Leader Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Josu Erkoreka
Party CiU ERC EAJ-PNV
Leader since 2004 2004 2004
Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Biscay
Last election 15 seats, 4.2% 1 seat, 0.8% 7 seats, 1.5%
Seats won 10 8 7
Seat change Decrease5 Increase7 ±0
Popular vote 835,471 652,196 420,980
Percentage 3.2% 2.5% 1.6%
Swing Decrease1.0 pp Increase1.7 pp Increase0.1 pp
Most voted party by autonomous community and province.

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Prime Minister before election

José María Aznar
PP

 Elected Prime Minister

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
PSOE

The 2004 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 14 March 2004, to elect the 8th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and 208 of 259 seats in the Senate.

For the first time since the Spanish transition to democracy, none of the three main party leaders had previously led a general election campaign. The governing People's Party (PP) was led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy, after outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar had announced his intention not to seek a third term in office. The opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) was led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, while Gaspar Llamazares stood as United Left (IU) candidate.

The electoral outcome was heavily influenced by the aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. For the remaining days before the election, the PP government kept claiming evidence that the terrorist organization ETA was responsible for the bombings. However, it soon became evident that the bombings had not been authored according to ETA's modus operandi, and new evidence pointed out to an Islamist attack with possible links to al-Qaeda. The government was accused of hiding information so as to prevent linking the attack to Islamist groups, as it would have been seen by the Spanish public as a consequence of the PP government taking Spain into the unpopular Iraq War, weakening its chances to being re-elected in the incoming election. Large demonstrations were held across Spain and protests were organized in front of several PP party headquarters the day previous to the election.

In the event, the election result took many by surprise. The PP had been shown to lead all opinion polls conducted before March 11, although its lead over the PSOE had started to narrow as the campaign advanced. The PP government's handling of the 11-M bombings is thought to have accelerated this trend and to have caused a last-minute voter mobilization in favour of the PSOE as a form of protest against the PP. The Socialists ended up leading with an unexpected 5-point margin and a record 11 million votes, the most votes garnered by any party in a Spanish political election up until that date (and only surpassed by PSOE's result of 2008).

The day after the election, Zapatero announced his intention to form a minority PSOE government, without a coalition, saying in a radio interview: "the implicit mandate of the people is for us to form a minority government negotiating accords on each issue with other parliamentary groups". Two minor left-wing parties, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and IU, immediately announced their intention to support Zapatero's government. On April 16, 2004, Zapatero got the approval of the outright majority of the new Congress, with 183 out of 350 members voting for him, and became the Prime Minister of Spain the next day.[1]

Overview

Electoral system

Congress of Deputies

The 350 members of the Congress of Deputies were elected in 50 multi-member districts using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. Ceuta and Melilla elected 1 member each using plurality voting. Each district was entitled to an initial minimum of 2 seats, with the remaining 248 seats being allocated among the 50 provinces in proportion to their populations. Only lists polling above 3% of the total vote in each district (which includes blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

Senate

For the Senate, each of the 47 peninsular provinces was assigned 4 seats. For insular provinces, such as Baleares and Canarias, districts are the islands themselves, with the larger — Mallorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife — being assigned 3 seats each, and the smaller — Menorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma — 1 each. Ceuta and Melilla were assigned 2 seats each, for a total of 208 directly elected seats. In districts electing 4 seats, electors could vote for up to 3 candidates; in those with 2 or 3 seats, for up to 2 candidates; and for 1 candidate in single member constituencies. Electors would vote for individual candidates: those attaining the largest number of votes in each district would be elected for a 4-year term of office.

In addition, the legislative assemblies of the autonomous communities are entitled to appoint at least 1 senator each, as well as 1 senator for every million inhabitants, adding up a variable number of appointed seats to the directly-elected 208 senators.[2] This appointment usually did not take place at the same time that the general election, but when the autonomous communities held their elections.

Eligibility

Dual membership of both chambers of the Cortes or of the Cortes and regional assemblies was prohibited. Active judges, magistrates, ombudsmen, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals were also ineligible,[3] as well as CEOs or equivalent leaders of state monopolies and public bodies, such as the Spanish state broadcaster RTVE.[4] Additionally, under the Political Parties Law, June 2002, parties and individual candidates may be prevented from standing by the Spanish Supreme Court, if they were judicially perceived to discriminate against people on the basis of ideology, religion, beliefs, nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation, foment or organise violence as a means of achieving political objectives or support or compliment the actions of "terrorist organisations".[5]

Parties and coalitions of different parties which had registered with the Electoral Commission could present lists of candidates. Groups of electors which had not registered with the commission could also present lists, provided that they obtained the signatures of 1% of registered electors in a particular district.[4]

Opinion polls

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Main article: Opinion polling for the Spanish general election, 2004

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Results

Congress of Deputies

Overall

← Summary of the 14 March 2004 Spanish Congress of Deputies election results →
File:Spanish Congress of Deputies election, 2004 results.svg
Party Vote Seats
Votes  % ±pp Won +/−
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 11,026,163 42.59 Increase8.43 164 Increase39
People's Party (PP) 9,763,144 37.71 Decrease6.81 148 Decrease35
United Left (IU)[lower-alpha 1] 1,284,081 4.96 Decrease1.00 5 Decrease4
Convergence and Union (CiU) 835,471 3.23 Decrease0.96 10 Decrease5
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 652,196 2.52 Increase1.68 8 Increase7
Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) 420,980 1.63 Increase0.10 7 ±0
Canarian Coalition (CC) 235,221 0.91 Decrease0.16 3 Decrease1
Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) 208,688 0.81 Decrease0.51 2 Decrease1
Andalusian Party (PA) 181,868 0.70 Decrease0.19 0 Decrease1
Aragonese Union (CHA) 94,252 0.36 Increase0.03 1 ±0
Basque Solidarity (EA) 80,905 0.31 Decrease0.12 1 ±0
Yes to Navarre (NaBai) 61,045 0.24 New 1 Increase1
Valencian Nationalist Bloc-Green Left (BNV-EV) 40,759 0.16 Decrease0.09 0 ±0
Nationalist Agreement (PSM-EN,EU,EV,ER) 40,289 0.16 Increase0.06 0 ±0
Citizens for Blank Votes (CenB) 40,208 0.16 New 0 ±0
Aralar-Standing (Aralar-Zutik) 38,560 0.15 New 0 ±0
The Greens Ecopacifists (LVE) 37,499 0.14 Increase0.04 0 ±0
Aragonese Party (PAR) 36,540 0.14 Decrease0.03 0 ±0
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 34,101 0.13 Increase0.03 0 ±0
The Greens-The Ecologist Alternative (EV-AE) 30,528 0.12 New 0 ±0
Blank ballots 407,795 1.58 ±0.00
Total 25,891,299 100.00 350 ±0
Valid votes 25,891,299 98.99 Decrease0.33
Invalid votes 264,137 1.01 Increase0.33
Votes cast / turnout 26,155,436 75.66 Increase6.95
Abstentions 8,416,395 24.34 Decrease6.95
Registered voters 34,571,831
Source: Ministry of the Interior
Vote share
PSOE
  
 42.59%
PP
  
 37.71%
IU
  
 4.96%
CiU
  
 3.23%
ERC
  
 2.52%
EAJ-PNV
  
 1.63%
CC
  
 0.91%
BNG
  
 0.81%
CHA
  
 0.36%
EA
  
 0.31%
NaBai
  
 0.24%
Others
  
 3.17%
Blank ballots
  
 1.58%
Parliamentary seats
PSOE
  
 46.86%
PP
  
 42.29%
CiU
  
 2.86%
ERC
  
 2.29%
EAJ-PNV
  
 2.00%
IU
  
 1.43%
CC
  
 0.89%
BNG
  
 0.57%
CHA
  
 0.29%
EA
  
 0.29%
NaBai
  
 0.29%

Results by district

750px

Senate

← Summary of the 14 March 2004 Spanish Senate election results →
File:Spanish Senate election, 2004 results.svg
Party Vote Seats
Votes  % +/− Won +/− Total +/−
People's Party (PP) 102 Decrease25 126 Decrease24
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 81 Increase28 96 Increase29
United Left (IU) 0 ±0 2 Decrease1
Catalan Agreement of Progress (PSC-ERC-ICV) 12 Increase4 16 Increase4
Convergence and Union (CiU) 4 Decrease4 6 Decrease4
Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) 6 ±0 7 ±0
Canarian Coalition (CC) 3 Decrease2 4 Decrease2
Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) 0 ±0 1 ±0
Aragonese Party (PAR) 0 ±0 1 ±0
Others 0 Decrease1 0 Decrease2
Blank ballots 679,816 2.67 Decrease0.15
Total 25,426,107 100.00 208 ±0 259 ±0
Valid votes 25,426,107 97.09 Decrease0.42
Invalid votes 761,055 2.91 Increase0.42
Votes cast / turnout 26,187,162 75.75 Increase6.92
Abstentions 8,384,669 24.25 Decrease6.92
Registered voters 34,571,831
Source(s):
Parliamentary seats
PP
  
 48.65%
PSOE
  
 37.07%
PSC-ERC-ICV
  
 6.18%
EAJ-PNV
  
 2.70%
CiU
  
 2.32%
CC
  
 1.54%
IU
  
 0.77%
BNG
  
 0.39%
PAR
  
 0.39%

The Spanish Senate at the time of the 2004 election was composed by 208 directly-elected seats and 51 seats appointed by the regional parliaments of the autonomous communities when a new Parliament resulting from a regional election convenes. The appointment process of these seats depended on the political composition of those regional assemblies, and as such, it could change each time regional elections were held.

Post-election

Investiture voting

Date Candidate Vote Total Notes
16 April 2004
Majority required:
Absolute (176/350)		 José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero (PSOE)		 YesYYes
183 / 350
PSOE (164), ERC (8), IU (5), CC (3), BNG (2), CHA (1)
No
148 / 350
PP (148)
Abstentions
19 / 350
CiU (10), PNV (7), EA (1), NaBai (1)
Other
0 / 350
Source: Historia Electoral - Spanish General Election 14 March 2004

References

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Notes

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Further reading

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External links


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  1. ↑ Zapatero, inaugurated as Prime Minister with absolute majority - ABC (Spanish)
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