A regional election was held in the Canary Islands on 28 May 1995 to elect the 4th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 60 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.

Overview Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of the Canary Islands 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. ( by ).

Date The term of the Parliament of the Canary Islands expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 54 days before the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of the Canaries (BOC).; ( by ; by ). The previous election was held on 26 May 1991, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 28 May 1995.

The Parliament of the Canary Islands could not be dissolved before the expiration date 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 Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term..

The election to the Parliament of the Canary Islands was officially called on 4 April 1995 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOC, setting election day for 28 May..

Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Canary Islands 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 the Canary Islands had a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 70 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 60. All were elected in seven multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the islands of El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote and Tenerife, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a 20 percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency or three percent regionally..

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:; .

Seats Constituencies 15 Gran Canaria, Tenerife 8 La Palma, Lanzarote 7 Fuerteventura 4 La Gomera 3 El Hierro

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 the election call.

+ Parliamentary composition in April 1995 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Canarian Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 23 23 Canarian Independent Groups–AIC Parliamentary Group AIC 10 16 PIL 4 IF 2 Centrist Parliamentary Group CCI 6 7 AGI 1 People's Parliamentary Group PP 6 6 Canarian Left Parliamentary Group (ICAN) ICAN 5 5 Mixed Parliamentary Group AM 2 3 AHI 1

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 Candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Augusto Brito Social democracy 33.0% CC Manuel Hermoso RegionalismCanarian nationalismCentrism 34.1% CDS–UC Juan Bautista Ruiz CentrismLiberalism 14.4% PP José Miguel Bravo de Laguna ConservatismChristian democracy 12.8% PCN Onelio Ramos Canarian nationalism 2.6% AHI Juan Padrón Morales InsularismCanarian nationalismCentrism 0.2% IUC Segundo Martínez SocialismCommunism colspan="2"

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; 31 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of the Canary Islands.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout ICAN AM PCN Lead 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 64.2 23.1 0.7 31.1 0.3 32.8 5.1 3.0 1.7 Eco Consulting/RTVE 28 May 1995?? 22.0 – 31.9 – 30.1 5.3 – 1.8 Demoscopia/El País 10–15 May 1995 1,452? 16.8 3.3 33.9 0.5 31.0 9.8 – 2.9 CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 999 69.4 18.4 – 31.4 – 38.8 6.0 – 7.4 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 49.9 24.8 0.7 43.9 – 18.8 8.3 – 19.1 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 68.9 29.9 1.2 33.9 – 25.6 5.0 – 4.0 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 61.7 33.0 22.7 14.4 12.8 12.2 0.7 0.2 – – – 10.3

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size ICAN AM PCN Lead 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 14.7 0.4 19.8 0.2 21.0 3.3 1.9 35.0 1.2 CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 999 14.5 0.5 20.4 – 24.8 5.2 – 25.7 4.8 4.4 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 995 14.2 0.9 23.2 – 20.9 7.1 – 22.9 7.2 2.3 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 12.4 0.4 22.0 – 9.4 4.2 – 49.8 9.6 CIS 5–22 May 1994 965 12.8 1.7 22.8 0.2 8.3 7.1 – 29.0 7.0 10.0 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 20.5 0.8 23.4 – 17.6 3.4 – 30.7 2.9 CIS 8–21 Nov 1992 1,085 21.9 11.6 2.1 9.1 8.8 0.5 0.1 – – – 37.4 7.8 10.3 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 20.3 13.9 8.8 8.0 7.8 0.4 0.1 – – – 38.0 6.4

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 Other/None Lead CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 999 17.8 23.5 30.7 – 0.1 28.0 7.2 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 995 17.0 27.0 32.2 – – 23.8 5.2 CIS 5–22 May 1994 965 14.5 24.6 23.9 8.8 4.2 23.9 0.7

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 Other/None Lead CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 999 12.1 27.9 23.1 – 37.0 4.8 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 995 11.8 28.4 26.0 – 33.8 2.4

Preferred President The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become president of the Canary Islands.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 999 11.2 17.1 29.4 4.3 38.0 12.3 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 995 8.5 17.7 27.3 3.6 42.8 9.6

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Parliament of the Canary Islands election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Canarian Coalition (CC)1 261,424 32.80 −1.33 21 +4 People's Party (PP) 247,609 31.07 +18.24 18 +12 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 183,969 23.08 −9.95 16 −7 Canarian United Left (IUC) 40,614 5.10 New 0 ±0 Nationalist Canarian Platform (PCN)2 23,914 3.00 +0.43 4 −2 Coalition for Gran Canaria (CGC) 10,964 1.38 New 0 ±0 Democratic and Social Centre–Centrist Union (CDS–UC) 5,340 0.67 −13.74 0 −7 National Congress of the Canaries (CNC) 2,964 0.37 New 0 ±0 Popular Front of the Canary Islands–Awañac (FREPIC–Awañac) 2,436 0.31 −0.28 0 ±0 Independent Herrenian Group (AHI) 2,105 0.26 +0.05 1 ±0 Tenerife Assembly (ATF) 1,600 0.20 New 0 ±0 Humanist Platform (PH)3 1,561 0.20 +0.04 0 ±0 Green Left of the Canary Islands (Izegzawen) 1,357 0.17 New 0 ±0 Communist Party of the Canarian People (PCPC) 1,251 0.16 New 0 ±0 Party of The People (LG) 625 0.08 −0.13 0 ±0 Nationalist Canarian Initiative (ICAN)4 248 0.03 −0.03 0 ±0 Blank ballots 9,078 1.14 +0.37 Total 797,059 60 ±0 Valid votes 797,059 99.43 +0.16 Invalid votes 4,548 0.57 −0.16 Votes cast / turnout 801,607 64.20 +2.51 Abstentions 446,968 35.80 −2.51 Registered voters 1,248,575 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency CC PP PSOE PNC AHI % S % S % S % S % S El Hierro 26.7 1 23.0 1 43.0 1 Fuerteventura 31.3 2 26.5 2 26.9 2 10.5 1 Gran Canaria 27.5 5 40.2 7 18.0 3 3.3 − La Gomera 35.5 2 8.9 − 47.0 2 La Palma 45.6 4 20.0 2 27.4 2 Lanzarote 17.1 1 19.0 2 25.2 2 29.8 3 Tenerife 39.2 7 24.6 4 27.0 4 Total 32.8 21 31.1 18 23.1 16 3.0 4 0.3 1 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 11 July 1995 Required majority → 31 out of 60 Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

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