A regional election was held in Andalusia on 3 March 1996 to elect the 5th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 109 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with the 1996 Spanish general election.

The 1994 election had resulted in a hung parliament. Manuel Chaves had formed a minority government of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Andalusia (PSOE–A), but was forced to dissolve the Parliament and call a snap election for March 1996 after barely twenty months into his term, as a result of the conservative People's Party (PP) and left-wing United Left (IULV–CA) joining into an unofficial alliance (dubbed as la pinza, Spanish for "the clamp") to block the Chaves government's parliamentary action. Scandals rocking Felipe González's national government and favourable opinion polls were among the reasons that led the two parties to team up to bring down the PSOE regional government.

Despite opinion polls predicting a likely PSOE defeat, the election result was a major upset: the PSOE gained over 500,000 votes and 7 seats compared to the previous election and won a resounding victory as the PP stagnated and the IU vote collapsed. At 77.9%, turnout was the highest ever registered for a regional election in Andalusia. This result allowed Chaves to form a coalition government with the Andalusian Party (PA), ending the period of political turmoil that had dominated the previous legislature.

Overview Under the 1981 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Andalusia 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.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..

Date The term of the Parliament of Andalusia 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 Gazette of the Regional Government of Andalusia (BOJA), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication (barring any date within from 1 July to 31 August).; ( by ). The previous election was held on 12 June 1994, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 12 June 1998. Due to the ban on summer elections, the election decree was required to be published in the BOJA no later than 7 May 1998, setting the latest legal possible date for election day on 30 June 1998.

The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Andalusia at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one. ( by ).

The Parliament of Andalusia was officially dissolved on 9 January 1996 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOJA, setting election day for 3 March and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 29 March..

Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Andalusia and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated.; ( by ).

The Parliament of Andalusia had a minimum of 90 and a maximum of 110 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 109. All were elected in eight multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of eight seats and the remaining 45 distributed in proportion to population (with the number of seats in each province not exceeding two times that of any other)—using 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 Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:.

Seats Constituencies 19 Seville 15 Cádiz, Málaga 13 Córdoba, Granada 12 Jaén 11 Almería, Huelva

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. ( by ).

Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.

+ Parliamentary composition in January 1996 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE–A 45 45 Andalusian People's Parliamentary Group PP 41 41 United Left/The Greens Parliamentary Group IULV–CA 20 20 Andalusian Parliamentary Group PA 3 3

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. ( by ).

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE–A Manuel Chaves Social democracy 38.7% PP Javier Arenas ConservatismChristian democracy 34.4% IULV–CA Luis Carlos Rejón SocialismCommunism 19.1% PA Pedro Pacheco Andalusian nationalismSocial democracy 5.8%

Campaign Debates + 1996 Andalusian regional election debates Date Organizer(s) Moderator(s) PSOE–A PP IULV–CA PA Audience 28 February Cadena SER Iñaki Gabilondo NI NI — 29 February Canal Sur Rafael Rodríguez 26.5%

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; 55 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Andalusia.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout IULV Lead 1996 regional election 3 Mar 1996 78.1 44.1 34.0 14.0 6.7 10.1 Demoscopia/El País 16–21 Feb 1996? 80 33.3 39.7 18.3 7.5 6.4 CIS 12–21 Feb 1996 2,497 76.5 35.1 38.4 18.7 7.4 3.3 Sigma Dos–Vox Pública/El Mundo 15–20 Feb 1996 2,200? 32.5 37.9 18.7 8.5 5.4 Vox Pública/El Periódico 11–16 Feb 1996 2,000? 34.9 40.2 17.7 6.0 5.3 Metra Seis/Colpisa 10–15 Feb 1996 1,617? 34.0–36.0 39.0–40.0 14.0–16.0 7.0–9.0 4.0–5.0 Demoscopia/El País 10 Feb 1996? 80 35.7 39.3 17.4? 3.6 Sigma Dos–Vox Pública/El Mundo 21–25 Jan 1996 2,200? 32.7 39.4 18.0 8.2 6.7 Sigma Dos/PP 3–10 Dec 1995?? 37.4 38.7 19.4 2.5 1.3 PSOE 9 Dec 1995 2,400? 38.0 34.0 18.0 5.0 4.0 PSOE 27 Nov 1995??????? PSOE 23 Nov 1995????? –? CIS 27 Oct–5 Nov 1995 2,498 72.8 34.5 37.4 21.6 5.9 2.9 1994 regional election 12 Jun 1994 67.3 38.7 34.4 19.1 5.8 4.3

Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size IULV Lead 1996 regional election 3 Mar 1996 33.8 26.2 10.8 5.1 21.7 7.6 CIS 12–21 Feb 1996 2,497 28.8 22.2 12.4 5.2 25.2 4.2 6.6 CIS 27 Oct–5 Nov 1995 2,498 25.5 20.8 14.0 3.1 27.5 7.0 4.7 CIS 18 Feb–2 Mar 1995 1,999 27.2 19.0 15.3 3.0 25.3 8.0 8.2 1994 regional election 12 Jun 1994 25.9 23.2 12.9 3.9 32.3 2.7

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead CIS 12–21 Feb 1996 2,497 41.4 27.3 12.8 18.6 14.1

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.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead CIS 12–21 Feb 1996 2,497 21.3 35.7 19.1 23.9 14.4

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 3 March 1996 Parliament of Andalusia election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Andalusia (PSOE–A) 1,903,160 44.05 +5.33 52 +7 People's Party (PP) 1,466,980 33.96 −0.40 40 −1 United Left/The Greens–Assembly for Andalusia (IULV–CA) 603,495 13.97 −5.17 13 −7 Andalusian Party (PA)1 287,764 6.66 +0.86 4 +1 Communist Party of the Andalusian People (PCPA) 7,340 0.17 −0.17 0 ±0 Andalusian Nation (NA) 5,846 0.14 −0.13 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 4,339 0.10 −0.05 0 ±0 Authentic Spanish Phalanx (FEA) 3,869 0.09 New 0 ±0 Centrist Union (UC) 1,688 0.04 −0.23 0 ±0 Democratic Andalusian Unity (UAD) 1,486 0.03 New 0 ±0 Voice of the Andalusian People (VDPA) 840 0.02 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 33,165 0.77 −0.08 Total 4,319,972 109 ±0 Valid votes 4,319,972 99.37 −0.03 Invalid votes 27,221 0.63 +0.03 Votes cast / turnout 4,347,193 77.94 +10.67 Abstentions 1,230,374 22.06 −10.67 Registered voters 5,577,567 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE–A PP IULV–CA PA % S % S % S % S Almería 45.6 5 39.7 5 10.3 1 3.3 − Cádiz 39.5 6 32.5 5 12.8 2 13.8 2 Córdoba 41.7 6 31.6 4 19.7 3 5.7 − Granada 44.9 7 37.5 5 12.4 1 3.9 − Huelva 49.2 6 32.8 4 11.5 1 5.3 − Jaén 47.3 6 36.2 5 12.2 1 3.3 − Málaga 39.6 6 37.3 6 15.8 2 5.7 1 Seville 47.4 10 29.7 6 13.9 2 7.5 1 Total 44.1 52 34.0 40 14.0 13 6.7 4 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 11 April 1996 Required majority → 55 out of 109 Abstentions Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography