1977 Spanish general election

{{Main|Spanish transition to democracy}}

The death of Francisco Franco in 1975 paved the way for Spain's transition from an autocratic, one-party dictatorship into a democratic, constitutional monarchy. As per the Succession Law of 1947, the Spanish monarchy was restored under the figure of Juan Carlos I, who quickly became the promoter of a peaceful democratic reform of state institutions. This move was supported by western countries, an important sector of Spanish and international capitalism, a majority of the opposition to Francoism—organized into the Democratic Convergence Platform and the Democratic Junta, which in 1976 would both merge into the Democratic Coordination—and a growing part of the Franco regime itself, weary of popular mobilization after the outcome of the Carnation Revolution in neighbouring Portugal in 1974.{{cite news |last1=Landaluce |first1=Emilia |last2=Manso |first2=Joaquín |date=20 November 2016 |title=Así se gestó la ley que puso fin al franquismo hace 40 años |url=http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2016/11/20/5830aabb268e3e58258b4643.html |language=es |work=El Mundo |access-date=6 July 2017}} However, as incumbent Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro rejected any major transformation of the Spanish political system, rather supporting the preservation of Francoist laws, he was dismissed by the King in July 1976, who appointed Adolfo Suárez for the post.

Suárez's plans for political reform involved the transformation of Spanish institutions in accordance to the Francoist legal system through the approval of a "political reform bill" as a Fundamental Law of the Realm. This was meant as a step beyond Arias Navarro's plans to update—but preserve—the Francoist regime, with Suárez intending to implement democracy "from law to law through law"—in the words of Torcuato Fernández-Miranda—without the outright liquidation of the Francoist system as called for by opposition parties.{{cite news |last=López Burniol |first=Juan-José |date=11 February 2017 |title=De la ley a la ley |url=http://www.abc.es/espana/la-transicion-espanola/protagonistas/abci-fernandez-miranda-ley-ley-201706091659_noticia.html |language=es |work=La Vanguardia |access-date=6 July 2017}}{{cite news |last=Fernández-Miranda |first=Juan |date=9 June 2017 |title=Fernández-Miranda: de la ley a la ley |url=http://www.abc.es/espana/la-transicion-espanola/protagonistas/abci-fernandez-miranda-ley-ley-201706091659_noticia.html |language=es |work=ABC |access-date=6 July 2017}} Thus, on 18 November 1976, the 1977 Political Reform Act was passed by the Francoist {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}}, later ratified in a referendum on 15 December 1976 with overwhelming popular support. As set out in Suárez's scheme, the Act called for an electoral process to elect new {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}} that were to be responsible for drafting a democratic constitution.

Under the 1977 Political Reform Act, the Spanish {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}} were envisaged as a provisional legislature that was to approve a new constitution in a short timespan. Initiative for constitutional amendment belonged to the Congress of Deputies, as well as to the national government. Constitutional bills required to be passed by an absolute majority in both the Congress and Senate. If the Senate rejected the bill as passed by Congress, discrepancies were to be submitted to a mixed commission and, if the deadlock persisted, a joint sitting of both chambers would convene as a single legislative body in order to resolve on the issue by an absolute majority.{{harvp|Law 1/1977|1977|loc=art. 3}}. Voting for the {{lang|es|Cortes|italic=no}} was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 21 years of age and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. I, art. 2}}.{{sfn|Carreras de Odriozola|Tafunell Sambola|2005|p=1077}}

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain. Each constituency was entitled to an initial minimum of two seats, with the remaining 248 fixed among the constituencies in proportion to their populations, at a rate of approximately one seat per each 144,500 inhabitants or fraction greater than 70,000. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting.{{harvp|Law 1/1977|1977|loc=art. 2}}.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. II, ch. II, art. 19–20}}. The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.{{cite web |last=Gallagher |first=Michael |date=30 July 2012 |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/ElSystems/Docts/effthresh.php |title=Effective threshold in electoral systems |publisher=Trinity College, Dublin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730092518/http://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/ElSystems/Docts/effthresh.php |access-date=22 July 2017 |archive-date=30 July 2017}}

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. II, ch. II, art. 19}}.{{cite journal |journal=Boletín Oficial del Estado |issue=92 |date=18 April 1977 |page=8345 |issn=0212-033X |title=Real Decreto 679/1977, de 15 de abril, por el que se convocan elecciones generales a las Cortes Españolas |url=https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/1977/04/18/pdfs/A08345-08345.pdf |language=es}}

For the Senate, 207 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger—Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife—being allocated three seats each, and the smaller—Menorca, Ibiza–Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera–El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma—one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, the King could appoint senators in a number not higher than one-fifth of the elected seats.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. II, ch. II, art. 19 & 21}}.

The law provided for by-elections to fill Congress seats only when the results in a particular constituency were annulled by a final court's decision deriving from the election's legal challenge procedures; additionally for the Senate, by-elections were required to fill any seat vacated up to two years into the legislature's term.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. III, art. 29}}.

Spanish citizens of age and with the legal capacity to vote could run for election. Causes of ineligibility were imposed on government ministers; the president and members of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Council of State and the Court of Auditors; the Ombudsman; high-ranking members—undersecretaries, secretaries-general, directors-general and chiefs of staff—of the General State Administration, government delegations, the Social Security and other government agencies; judges and public prosecutors in active service; Armed Forces and police corps personnel in active service; members of electoral commissions; and the chairs of national trade unions; as well as a number of territorial-level officers in the aforementioned government bodies and institutions being barred from running, during their tenure of office, in constituencies within the whole or part of their respective area of jurisdiction.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. I, art. 4}}. Disqualification provisions for the Cortes Generales extended to the impossibility of being simultaneously a member of both the Congress and Senate.

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one permille—and, in any case, 500 signatures—of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.{{harvp|RDL 20/1977|1977|loc=tit. IV, art. 30–31 & 34}}.

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

{{Main|Opinion polling for the 1977 Spanish general election}}

{{For|results by autonomous community/constituency|Results breakdown of the 1977 Spanish general election (Congress)}}

{{bar box

|title=Popular vote

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|UCD|{{party color|Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)}}|34.44}}

{{bar percent|PSOE|{{party color|Spanish Socialist Workers' Party}}|29.32}}

{{bar percent|PCE|{{party color|Communist Party of Spain}}|9.33}}

{{bar percent|AP|{{party color|People's Alliance (Spain)}}|8.33}}

{{bar percent|PSP–US|{{party color|People's Socialist Party (Spain)}}|4.52}}

{{bar percent|PDC|{{party color|Democratic Pact for Catalonia}}|2.81}}

{{bar percent|EDCEE|{{party color|Christian Democracy Federation–Christian Democracy Team}}|2.28}}

{{bar percent|EAJ/PNV|{{party color|Basque Nationalist Party}}|1.62}}

{{bar percent|EC–FED|{{party color|Left of Catalonia–Democratic Electoral Front}}|0.79}}

{{bar percent|EE–UNAI|{{party color|Euskadiko Ezkerra}}|0.47}}

{{bar percent|CAIC|{{party color|Centre Independent Aragonese Candidacy}}|0.20}}

{{bar percent|CIC|{{party color|Independent Candidacy}}|0.16}}

{{bar percent|Others|#777777|5.48}}

{{bar percent|Blank ballots|#DDDDDD|0.25}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Seats

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|UCD|{{party color|Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)}}|47.14}}

{{bar percent|PSOE|{{party color|Spanish Socialist Workers' Party}}|33.71}}

{{bar percent|PCE|{{party color|Communist Party of Spain}}|5.71}}

{{bar percent|AP|{{party color|People's Alliance (Spain)}}|4.57}}

{{bar percent|PDC|{{party color|Democratic Pact for Catalonia}}|3.14}}

{{bar percent|EAJ/PNV|{{party color|Basque Nationalist Party}}|2.29}}

{{bar percent|PSP–US|{{party color|People's Socialist Party (Spain)}}|1.71}}

{{bar percent|EDCEE|{{party color|Christian Democracy Federation–Christian Democracy Team}}|0.57}}

{{bar percent|EC–FED|{{party color|Left of Catalonia–Democratic Electoral Front}}|0.29}}

{{bar percent|EE–UNAI|{{party color|Euskadiko Ezkerra}}|0.29}}

{{bar percent|CAIC|{{party color|Centre Independent Aragonese Candidacy}}|0.29}}

{{bar percent|CIC|{{party color|Independent Candidacy}}|0.29}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Popular vote

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|UCD|{{party color|Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)}}|29.88}}

{{bar percent|PSOE|{{party color|Spanish Socialist Workers' Party}}|11.04}}

{{bar percent|SD|{{party color|Democratic Senate}}|10.52}}

{{bar percent|AP|{{party color|People's Alliance (Spain)}}|9.17}}

{{bar percent|Entesa|{{party color|Agreement of the Catalans}}|9.08}}

{{bar percent|PSP–US|{{party color|People's Socialist Party (Spain)}}|5.05}}

{{bar percent|FA|{{party color|Autonomous Front}}|3.31}}

{{bar percent|PSI|#FF6F9D|3.08}}

{{bar percent|DiC|{{party color|Democracy and Catalonia}}|2.55}}

{{bar percent|PCE|{{party color|Communist Party of Spain}}|1.96}}

{{bar percent|EDCEE|{{party color|Christian Democracy Federation–Christian Democracy Team}}|1.57}}

{{bar percent|ASDCI|{{party color|Democratic Socialist Alliance (Spain)}}|1.18}}

{{bar percent|CDG|{{party color|Galician Democratic Candidacy}}|1.16}}

{{bar percent|AE Xirinacs|#000000|1.06}}

{{bar percent|CAUD|{{party color|Aragonese Candidacy of Democratic Unity}}|1.04}}

{{bar percent|CAIC|{{party color|Centre Independent Aragonese Candidacy}}|0.60}}

{{bar percent|EE–UNAI|{{party color|Euskadiko Ezkerra}}|0.44}}

{{bar percent|IDS|{{party color|Independent Candidacy}}|0.15}}

{{bar percent|AM|{{party color|Majorera Assembly}}|0.01}}

{{bar percent|Others|#777777|7.17}}

{{bar percent|Blank ballots|#DDDDDD|0.00}}

}}

{{bar box

|title=Seats

|titlebar=#ddd

|width=550px

|barwidth=500px

|bars=

{{bar percent|UCD|{{party color|Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)}}|51.21}}

{{bar percent|PSOE|{{party color|Spanish Socialist Workers' Party}}|16.91}}

{{bar percent|SD|{{party color|Democratic Senate}}|7.73}}

{{bar percent|Entesa|{{party color|Agreement of the Catalans}}|5.80}}

{{bar percent|FA|{{party color|Autonomous Front}}|4.83}}

{{bar percent|PSI|#FF6F9D|3.86}}

{{bar percent|IDS|{{party color|Independent Candidacy}}|1.93}}

{{bar percent|CDG|{{party color|Galician Democratic Candidacy}}|1.45}}

{{bar percent|CAUD|{{party color|Aragonese Candidacy of Democratic Unity}}|1.45}}

{{bar percent|AP|{{party color|People's Alliance (Spain)}}|0.97}}

{{bar percent|PSP–US|{{party color|People's Socialist Party (Spain)}}|0.97}}

{{bar percent|DiC|{{party color|Democracy and Catalonia}}|0.97}}

{{bar percent|AE Xirinacs|#000000|0.48}}

{{bar percent|CAIC|{{party color|Centre Independent Aragonese Candidacy}}|0.48}}

{{bar percent|EE–UNAI|{{party color|Euskadiko Ezkerra}}|0.48}}

{{bar percent|AM|{{party color|Majorera Assembly}}|0.48}}

}}

File:1977 Spanish general election map.svg|Election results by constituency (Congress).

File:1977 Spanish election - Results.svg|Vote winner strength by constituency (Congress).

File:1977 Spanish election - AC results.svg|Vote winner strength by autonomous community (Congress).{{efn|name="AC"}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Ley 1/1977, de 4 de enero, para la Reforma Política |type=Law |number=1/1977 |date=4 January 1977 |reporter=Boletín Oficial del Estado |volume=4 |issn=0212-033X |id=BOE-A-1977-165 |language=es |url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1977-165 |access-date=27 December 2016 |ref={{harvid|Law 1/1977|1977}}}}
• {{cite act |italics=y |title=Real Decreto-ley 20/1977, de 18 de marzo, sobre Normas Electorales |type=Royal Decree-Law |number=20/1977 |date=18 March 1977 |reporter=Boletín Oficial del Estado |volume=70 |issn=0212-033X |id=BOE-A-1977-7445 |language=es |url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1977-7445 |access-date=27 December 2016 |ref={{harvid|RDL 20/1977|1977}}}}
• {{cite book |last1=Carreras de Odriozola |first1=Albert |last2=Tafunell Sambola |first2=Xavier |year=2005 |orig-year=1989 |title=Estadísticas históricas de España, siglos XIX-XX |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/autores.pdf |language=es |volume=1 |location=Bilbao |publisher=Fundación BBVA |pages=1072–1097 |edition=II |isbn=84-96515-00-1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924010950/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/autores.pdf |archive-date=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all}}
• {{cite book |last=Juliá Díaz |first=Santos |year=1999 |title=Un siglo de España. Política y sociedad |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Marcial Pons |isbn=84-9537903-1}}
• {{cite book |last=Martínez Martín |first=Jesús |year=1998 |title=Historia de España. Siglo XX (1939-1996) |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Cátedra |isbn=9788437617039}}
• {{cite book |last=Preston |first=Paul |year=2003 |title=Juan Carlos, el rey de un pueblo |language=es |volume=2 |location=Hospitalet |publisher=ABC, S.L |pages=362–415 |isbn=84-413-2063-2}}
• {{cite book |last=Ruiz González |first=David |year=2002 |title=La España democrática (1975-2000). Política y sociedad |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Síntesis |pages=1072–1097 |isbn=84-9756-015-9}}
• {{cite book |last=Tusell Gómez |first=Javier |year=1997 |title=La transición española. La recuperación de las libertades |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=Historia 16-Temas de Hoy |isbn=84-7679-327-8}}

{{refend}}

{{Spanish elections}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:General election in Spain, 1977}}

Category:1977 elections in Spain

1977

Category:June 1977 in Spain