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1997 Galician election

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1997 Galician regional election
19 October 1997
All 75 seats in the Parliament of Galicia
38 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered2,565,369 Increase 11.9%
Turnout1,603,731 (62.5%)
Decrease 1.7 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Manuel Fraga Xosé Manuel Beiras Abel Caballero
Party PP BNG PSdeG–PSOE/
EU–EG/OV
Leader since 1989 1982 26 October 1996
Leader's seat Lugo La Coruña Pontevedra
Last election 43 seats, 52.1% 13 seats, 18.4% 19 seats, 27.1%[a]
Seats won 42 18 15
Seat change Decrease 1 Increase 5 Decrease 4
Popular vote 832,751 395,435 310,508
Percentage 52.2% 24.8% 19.5%
Swing Increase 0.1 pp Increase 6.4 pp Decrease 7.6 pp
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Galicia
President before election

Manuel Fraga
PP

 Elected President

Manuel Fraga
PP

A regional election was held in Galicia on 19 October 1997 to elect the 5th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview

Under the 1981 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Galicia was 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.[1] The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions.[2]

Date

The term of the Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.[3] The previous election was held on 17 October 1993, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 17 October 1997. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 23 September 1997, setting the latest possible date for election day on 22 November 1997.

The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Galicia at any given time and call a snap election, provided that it did not occur before one year after a previous one under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.[4]

The Parliament of Galicia was officially dissolved on 26 August 1997 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOG, setting election day for 19 October and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 18 November.[5]

Electoral system

Voting for the Parliament is based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Galicia and with full political rights, provided that they have not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated.[6]

The Parliament of Galicia had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 80 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 75. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 10 seats and the remaining 35 distributed in proportion to population—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.[7] The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.[8]

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:[9]

Seats Constituencies
24 La Coruña
22 Pontevedra(+1)
15 Lugo
14 Orense(–1)

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.[10]

Outgoing parliament

The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.[11][12]

Parliamentary composition in August 1997
Groups Parties Legislators
Seats Total
People's Parliamentary Group of Galicia PP 43 43
Socialists of Galicia's Parliamentary Group PSdeG–PSOE 19 19
Galician Nationalist Bloc's Parliamentary Group BNG 13 13

Parties and candidates

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 were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 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.[13]

Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:

Candidacy Parties and
alliances		 Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Gov. Ref.
Vote % Seats
PP
List
 Manuel Fraga Conservatism
Christian democracy		 52.1% 43 Yes
PSdeG–
PSOE/EU–
EG/OV		 Abel Caballero Social democracy
27.1%
[a]		 19 No [14]
[15]
BNG Xosé Manuel Beiras Galician nationalism
Left-wing nationalism
Socialism		 18.4% 13 No

Opinion polls

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.

Voting intention estimates

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; 38 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia.

Color key:

  Poll conducted after legal ban on opinion polls

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Victory preferences

The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.

Victory likelihood

The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.

Preferred President

The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become president of the Regional Government of Galicia.

Predicted President

The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood for each leader to become president of the Regional Government of Galicia.

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 19 October 1997 Parliament of Galicia election results →
Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Total +/−
People's Party (PP) 832,75152.19+0.05 42−1
Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) 395,43524.78+6.40 18+5
Socialists' Party–Galician Left–The Greens (PSdeG–PSOE/EU–EG/Os Verdes)1 310,50819.46−7.61 15−4
United Left (IU) 13,9640.88New 0±0
Galician Democracy (DG) 11,5380.72New 0±0
Galician People's Front (FPG) 3,3950.21New 0±0
Humanist Party (PH) 2,5430.16−0.01 0±0
Party of Self-employed and Professionals (AUTONOMO) 2,1360.13New 0±0
Social Democratic Party of Law (SDD) 1,1290.07New 0±0
The Move (Movida) 9390.06New 0±0
Galician Phalanx of the CNSO (FG–JONS) 3920.02New 0±0
Blank ballots 20,9371.31+0.40
Total 1,595,667 75±0
Valid votes 1,595,66799.50−0.02
Invalid votes 8,0640.50+0.02
Votes cast / turnout 1,603,73162.51−1.68
Abstentions 961,63837.49+1.68
Registered voters 2,565,369
Sources[11][16]
Footnotes:
Popular vote
PP
 
 52.19%
BNG
 
 24.78%
PSdeG/EG/OV
 
 19.46%
Others
 
 2.26%
Blank ballots
 
 1.31%
Seats
PP
 
 56.00%
BNG
 
 24.00%
PSdeG/EG/OV
 
 20.00%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency PP BNG PSdeG
% S % S % S
La Coruña 49.8 13 26.3 6 20.1 5
Lugo 57.7 9 19.8 3 18.9 3
Orense 56.7 8 21.3 3 19.6 3
Pontevedra 50.8 12 26.7 6 18.8 4
Total 52.2 42 24.8 18 19.5 15
Sources[11][16]

Aftermath

Government formation

Investiture
Nomination of Manuel Fraga (PP)
Ballot → 3 December 1997
Required majority → 38 out of 75 checkY
Yes
  • • PP (42)
42 / 75
No
33 / 75
Abstentions
0 / 75
Absentees
0 / 75
Sources[11]

2001 motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence
Nomination of Xosé Manuel Beiras (BNG)
Ballot → 29 January 2001
Required majority → 38 out of 75 ☒N
Yes
18 / 75
No
  • • PP (41)
41 / 75
Abstentions
15 / 75
Absentees
  • • PP (1)
1 / 75
Sources[11]

Notes

  1. Results for PSdeG–PSOE (23.7%, 19 seats), EU–UG (3.1%, 0 seats) and Os Verdes (0.3%, 0 seats) in the 1993 election.
  2. Does not include non-resident citizens.

References

Opinion poll sources

  1. "El PP teme que el BNG pase a ser la segunda fuerza política gallega". Diario de Navarra (in Spanish). 17 October 1997.
  2. "Fraga, sin rival en la oposición, seguirá "reinando" en Galicia". El Mundo (in Spanish). 12 October 1997. Archived from the original on 22 November 2001.
  3. "Fraga revalidará la mayoría absoluta en Galicia". El País (in Spanish). 12 October 1997.
  4. "Una encuesta del PP revalida la mayoría absoluta". ABC (in Spanish). 7 October 1997.
  5. "Fraga retiene la mayoría absoluta". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 12 October 1997.
  6. "El riesgo a perder la Xunta forzó a Fraga a repetir como candidato". El País (in Spanish). 29 September 1997.
  7. "Bloque se aproxima a los socialistas según un sondeo". El País (in Spanish). 29 September 1997.
  8. "La mayoría absoluta del PP seguirá, según el sondeo del CIS". Diario de Navarra (in Spanish). 11 October 1997.
  9. "Fraga repetiría mayoría absoluta, según el CIS". ABC (in Spanish). 11 October 1997.
  10. "El PP mantendrá su mayoría, según un sondeo del CIS". El País (in Spanish). 11 October 1997.
  11. "Los partidos aprovechan el día de Galicia para abrir la campaña de las autonómicas". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 26 July 1997.
  12. "Fraga perderá tres escaños, pero renovará la mayoría absoluta, según un sondeo". El País (in Spanish). 26 July 1997.
  13. "Galicia: Un nuevo sondeo pone al PP al borde de la mayoría absoluta". ABC (in Spanish). 28 July 1997.
  14. "PSOE y PP se enzarzan en Galicia en una guerra de encuestas". El País (in Spanish). 9 May 1997.
  15. "Un sondeo vaticina por primera vez que Fraga perderá la mayoría absoluta". El País (in Spanish). 23 November 1996.
  16. "Fraga reconcilia al PSOE gallego". El País (in Spanish). 15 December 1996.
  17. "Preelectoral de Galicia. Elecciones autonómicas 1997 (Estudio nº 2260. Septiembre 1997)". CIS (in Spanish). 11 October 1997.

Other

  1. Statute (1981), arts. 10 & 13.
  2. LEG (1985), final prov. 1.
  3. Statute (1981), art. 11; LEG (1985), art. 12 (suppl. by LOREG (1985), art. 42).
  4. LJP (1983), arts. 17 & 24.
  5. Decree 225/1997 (1997), arts. 1–2 & 5.
  6. Statute (1981), art. 11; LEG (1985), art. 2 (suppl. by LOREG (1985), arts. 2–3).
  7. Statute (1981), art. 11; LEG (1985), arts. 8–10.
  8. Gallagher, Michael (30 July 2012). "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Dublin: Trinity College Dublin. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  9. Decree 225/1997 (1997), art. 3.
  10. LEG (1985), art. 11 (suppl. by LOREG (1985), arts. 46 & 48).
  11. Lozano, Carles. "Elecciones al Parlamento de Galicia (desde 1981)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 May 2026.
  12. "Parlamento de Galicia. V Lexislatura (16-11-93 ó 28-08-97)" (PDF) (in Galician). Parliament of Galicia. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
  13. LEG (1985), art. 21 (suppl. by LOREG (1985), art. 44).
  14. "Esquerda Unida respalda por abrumadora mayoría el pacto con el PSOE en Galicia". El País (in Spanish). 25 May 1997. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  15. "Un 'olivo' en Galicia". El País (in Spanish). 15 October 1997. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  16. "Resolución de 5 de noviembre de 1997 por la que se hacen públicos los resultados generales y por circunscripciones y la relación de diputados proclamados electos en las elecciones al Parlamento de Galicia celebradas el día 19 de octubre de 1997" (PDF). Official Journal of Galicia (in Spanish) (218): 10805–10808. 11 November 1997. ISSN 1130-9229. Retrieved 6 June 2026.

Bibliography