1995 Extremaduran regional election

The 1995 Extremaduran regional election was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 4th Assembly of the autonomous community of Extremadura. All 65 seats in the Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

1995 Extremaduran regional election

28 May 1995
All 65 seats in the Assembly of Extremadura 33 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	845,728 2.5%
Turnout	662,444 (78.3%) 7.5 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Juan Ignacio Barrero Ricardo Sosa Party PSOE PP IU–LV–CE Leader since 20 December 1982 25 September 1993 1993 Leader's seat Badajoz Badajoz Badajoz Last election 39 seats, 54.2% 19 seats, 26.8% 4 seats, 8.1%[lower-alpha 1] Seats won 31 27 6 Seat change 8 8 2 Popular vote 289,149 259,703 69,387 Percentage 43.9% 39.5% 10.5% Swing 10.3 pp 12.7 pp 2.4 pp   Fourth party   Leader Pedro Cañada Party CEx Leader since 10 December 1980 Leader's seat Cáceres Last election 0 seats, 4.0%[lower-alpha 2] Seats won 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 14,452 Percentage 3.8% Swing 0.2 pp
Constituency results map for the Assembly of Extremadura
President before election Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE Elected President Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra PSOE

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won the election, but suffered a spectacular fall in both vote share and seats, losing the absolute majority it had maintained since 1983. On the other hand, the People's Party (PP) made great gains, winning the same 8 seats lost by the PSOE and nearing 40% of the vote. United Left (IU) obtained its best historical result to date in a regional election, with 6 out of 65 seats. The Extremaduran Coalition, an alliance of United Extremadura (EU) and the Extremaduran Regionalist Party (PREx), both of which failed to enter the Assembly in the 1991 election, entered the Assembly with 1 seat.

The Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), which had already been reduced to 3 seats in 1991, did not even stand in the 1995 election, thus losing all of its seats.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was able to be re-elected for a fourth term in office thanks to the abstention of IU. Both PP and IU together commanded an absolute majority of seats and could potentially block the PSOE in the Assembly, as had happened in Andalusia.

Overview

Electoral system

The Assembly of Extremadura was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Extremadura, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution and the Extremaduran Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a President of the Regional Government.[1] Voting for the Assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in Extremadura and in full enjoyment of their political rights.

The 65 members of the Assembly of Extremadura were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 5 percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Alternatively, parties failing to reach the threshold in one of the constituencies would also be entitled to enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both districts and reached 5 percent regionally. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of 20 seats, with the remaining 25 allocated among the constituencies in proportion to their populations.[1][2]

The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure the signature of at least 2 percent of the electors registered in the constituency for which they sought election. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election being called.[2][3][4]

Election date

The term of the Assembly of Extremadura expired four years after the date of its previous election. Elections to the Assembly were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The previous election was held on 26 May 1991, setting the election date for the Assembly on Sunday, 28 May 1995.[1][2][3][4]

The Assembly of Extremadura could not be dissolved before the date of expiry of parliament except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional President within a two-month period from the first ballot. In such a case, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of their four-year terms.[1][5]

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates 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 given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 33 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Assembly of Extremadura.

Color key:

  Exit poll

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout					CEx	Lead
1995 regional election	28 May 1995	N/A	78.3	43.9 31	39.5 27	10.5 6	–	3.8 1	4.4
Eco Consulting/RTVE[p 1]	28 May 1995	?	?	42.3 28/30	41.2 28/30	10.9 6/8	–	–	1.1
Sigma Dos/COPE[p 1]	28 May 1995	?	?	39.7 27/29	42.2 29/31	12.0 7	–	–	2.5
Vox Pública–ODEC/Antena 3[p 1]	28 May 1995	?	?	? 29/30	? 29/30	? 5/7	–	–	Tie
CEPS/Hoy[p 2]	21 May 1995	?	?	? 26	? 28	? 9	–	? 2	?
Demoscopia/El País[p 3][p 4][p 5][p 6]	10–15 May 1995	600	?	42.8 29/31	40.5 28	10.9 6/8	–	2.1 0	2.3
CIS[p 7][p 8]	24 Apr–10 May 1995	1,198	70.8	45.6	41.3	9.3	–	2.3	4.3
Sigma Dos/PP[p 9]	20–30 Jan 1995	1,000	?	39.7 26/29	40.4 26/30	13.8 8/9	–	2.9 1	0.7
1994 EP election	12 Jun 1994	N/A	66.2	45.0 31	40.2 28	10.7 6	0.7 0	1.0 0	4.8
1993 general election	6 Jun 1993	N/A	80.5	51.5 35	35.8 25	7.8 5	2.0 0	1.0 0	15.7
1991 regional election	26 May 1991	N/A	70.8	54.2 39	26.8 19	7.1 4	5.7 3	2.5 0	27.4

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Assembly of Extremadura election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	289,149	43.94	–10.22	31	–8
	People's Party (PP)	259,703	39.46	+12.68	27	+8
	United Left–The Greens–Commitment for Extremadura (IU–LV–CE)^1	69,387	10.54	+2.39	6	+2
	Extremaduran Coalition (CEx)^2	25,168	3.82	–0.17	1	+1
	Independent Socialists of Extremadura (SIEx)	7,722	1.17	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	1,136	0.17	–0.24	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	n/a	n/a	–5.73	0	–3
Blank ballots		5,804	0.88	+0.10
Total		658,069			65	±0
Valid votes		658,069	99.34	±0.00
Invalid votes		4,375	0.66	±0.00
Votes cast / turnout		662,444	78.33	+7.48
Abstentions		183,284	21.67	–7.48
Registered voters		845,728
Sources[6][7]

Popular vote PSOE   43.94% PP   39.46% IU–LV–CE   10.54% CEx   3.82% SIEx   1.17% PCPE   0.17% Blank ballots   0.88%

Seats PSOE   47.69% PP   41.54% IU–LV–CE   9.23% CEx   1.54%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency	PSOE		PP		IU–LV–CE		CEx
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
Badajoz	44.4	17	38.5	14	12.1	4	2.5	−
Cáceres	43.2	14	41.0	13	8.1	2	5.9	1
Total	43.9	31	39.5	27	10.5	6	3.8	1
Sources[6][7]

Aftermath

Investiture Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra (PSOE)
Ballot →		12 July 1995	14 July 1995
Required majority →		33 out of 65 N	Simple Y
	Yes • PSOE (31)	31 / 65	31 / 65
	No • PP (27) • IU–LV (6) (on 12 Jul)	33 / 65	27 / 65
	Abstentions • IU–LV (5) (on 14 Jul) • EU (1)	1 / 65	6 / 65
	Absentees • IU–LV (1) (on 14 Jul)	0 / 65	1 / 65
Sources[7]

Notes

1. Aggregated data for IU and LV in the 1991 election.
2. Aggregated data for EU and PREx in the 1991 election.

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "El PP se impuso en diez comunidades". Diario de Navarra (in Spanish). 29 May 1995.
2. "Los sondeos predicen una amplia victoria del PP en las autonómicas". Diario de Navarra (in Spanish). 22 May 1995.
3. "El PP será la fuerza más votada en 12 comunidades". El País (in Spanish). 20 May 1995.
4. "Rodríguez Ibarra se salva de la quema". El País (in Spanish). 20 May 1995.
5. "Mañana, previsiones para las municipales". El País (in Spanish). 20 May 1995.
6. "El PP gana en doce autonomías y el PSOE sólo en Extremadura, según un sondeo". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 21 May 1995.
7. "Preelectoral Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura (Estudio nº 2168. Abril-Mayo 1995)". CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
8. "Estudio CIS nº 2168. Ficha técnica" (PDF). CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
9. "El PP ganaría las elecciones autonómicas en Extremadura si se celebraran mañana". ABC (in Spanish). 8 February 1995.

Other

1. "Statute of Autonomy of Extremadura of 1983". Organic Law No. 1 of 25 February 1983. Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 March 2017.
2. "Assembly of Extremadura Elections Law of 1987". Law No. 2 of 16 March 1987. Official Journal of Extremadura (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 March 2017.
3. "General Electoral System Organic Law of 1985". Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985. Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 December 2016.
4. "Representation of the people Institutional Act". www.juntaelectoralcentral.es. Central Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
5. "Statute of Autonomy of Extremadura Reform of 1991". Organic Law No. 5 of 13 March 1991. Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 April 2017.
6. "Assembly of Extremadura election results, 28 May 1995. Badajoz and Cáceres" (PDF). www.juntaelectoralcentral.es (in Spanish). Electoral Commission of Extremadura. 10 June 1995. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
7. "Assembly of Extremadura elections since 1983". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 26 September 2017.