A regional election was held in the Canary Islands on 26 May 2019 to elect the 10th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 70 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in eleven other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain, as well as the 2019 European Parliament election.
The election saw the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) under Ángel Víctor Torres becoming the largest force in the islands. Together with New Canaries (NCa), the Yes We Can Canaries alliance led by Podemos and the Gomera Socialist Group (ASG), Torres was able to become regional president, sending Canarian Coalition (CCa) into opposition for the first time since 1993. Support for the People's Party (PP) shrunk, with the party obtaining its worst result since 1991.
Overview Under the 2018 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..
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 ). The previous election was held on 24 May 2015, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 26 May 2019.
Amendments in 2018 granted the regional president the prerogative to dissolve the Assembly of Extremadura 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.. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the Parliament's reconvening, the chamber was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called..
The election to the Parliament of the Canary Islands was officially called on 2 April 2019 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOC, setting election day for 26 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.; ( by ). Additionally, non-resident citizens were required to apply for voting, a system known as "begged" voting ()..
The Parliament of the Canary Islands had a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 75 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 70. All were elected in eight multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the islands of El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote and Tenerife, as well as an additional constituency comprising the whole archipelago, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a 15 percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency or four percent regionally..
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:; .
Seats Constituencies 15 Gran Canaria, Tenerife 9 Regional 8 Fuerteventura, La Palma, Lanzarote 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 2019 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Canarian Nationalist Parliamentary Group (CC–PNC) CCa 16 18 AHI 2 Canarian Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 15 15 People's Parliamentary Group PP 12 12 We Can Canaries Parliamentary Group Podemos 7 7 New Canaries Parliamentary Group (NC) NCa 5 5 Mixed Parliamentary Group ASG 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 ). Additionally, a balanced composition of men and women was required in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition..
Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:
Candidacy Parties andalliances Candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats CCa–PNC Fernando Clavijo RegionalismCanarian nationalismCentrism 21.8% PSOE Ángel Víctor Torres Social democracy 19.9% PP Asier Antona ConservatismChristian democracy 18.6% Podemos–SSP–Equo Noemí Santana Left-wing populismDirect democracyDemocratic socialism 14.5% NCa Román Rodríguez Canarian nationalismSocial democracy 10.4% Cs Vidina Espino Liberalism 5.9% ASG Casimiro Curbelo InsularismSocial democracy 0.6% Vox Carmelo González Right-wing populismUltranationalismNational conservatism 0.2%
Campaign Debates + 2019 Canarian regional election debates Date Organizer(s) Moderator(s) CCa–PNC PSOE PP USP NCa Cs Audience 10 May Cadena SER Miguel Ángel Rodríguez — 15 May RTVC Roberto GonzálezPilar Rumeu NI 6.1% 23 May RTVE Nayra Santana N/A 24 May COPE Mayer Trujillo —
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; 36 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of the Canary Islands (31 in the 2015 election).
Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 2019 regional election 26 May 2019 52.6 28.9 15.2 21.9 8.8 9.0 7.4 1.0 0.7 2.5 – 7.0 GfK/FORTA 26 May 2019?? 29.5 13.8 19.7 12.4 7.8 7.9 – 0.7? – 9.8 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 22–23 May 2019?? 24.6 13.5 17.5 12.6 11.3 12.9 – 0.4 3.6 – 7.1 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 21–22 May 2019?? 24.8 13.6 17.7 12.4 11.2 12.6 – 0.4 3.5 – 7.1 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 20–21 May 2019?? 24.9 13.5 17.6 12.5 11.0 12.5 – 0.4 3.6 – 7.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 19–20 May 2019?? 24.9 13.8 17.7 12.3 10.9 12.6 – 0.4 3.5 – 7.2 NC Report/La Razón 19 May 2019?? 26.2 13.1???? –?? –? ElectoPanel/Electomanía 16–19 May 2019?? 24.7 14.0 17.9 12.1 10.5 12.9 – 0.4 3.5 – 6.8 Hamalgama Métrica/La Provincia 5–17 May 2019 2,400? 25.3 13.9 18.3 13.5 9.9 10.6 – 0.3 4.7 – 7.0 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 13–16 May 2019?? 24.8 15.1 18.6 11.1 9.7 13.5 – 0.4 3.9 – 6.2 TSA/Canarias7 29 Apr–14 May 2019 2,659? 25.7 11.8 16.7 13.8 11.1 10.6 – 0.4 3.2 – 9.0 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 10–13 May 2019?? 23.7 15.2 18.3 11.2 9.0 14.4 – 0.3 4.0 – 5.4 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 7–10 May 2019?? 23.6 14.9 18.7 11.2 8.6 14.7 – 0.4 4.1 – 4.9 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 4–7 May 2019?? 24.1 14.7 18.9 10.9 8.5 15.0 – 0.4 4.5 – 5.2 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 29 Apr–4 May 2019?? 24.3 14.3 18.3 11.0 8.8 15.3 – 0.4 4.4 – 6.0 April 2019 general election 28 Apr 2019 62.5 27.8 15.5 13.0 3.4 14.7 – – 6.6 15.7 12.1 CIS 21 Mar–23 Apr 2019 924? 27.8 15.9 16.5 11.6 8.2 11.9 –? 3.6 – 11.3 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 31 Mar–7 Apr 2019?? 22.8 16.3 17.4 13.3 10.0 0.4 6.6 8.9 5.4 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 24–31 Mar 2019?? 23.0 15.9 17.3 13.5 10.3 0.4 6.7 8.8 5.7 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 17–24 Mar 2019?? 23.2 16.3 17.5 13.4 9.9 0.4 6.6 8.7 5.7 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 10–17 Mar 2019?? 22.4 16.7 18.0 13.1 9.0 0.5 7.6 9.0 4.4 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 3–10 Mar 2019?? 22.1 16.4 18.0 13.1 9.3 0.5 7.4 9.1 4.1 ElectoPanel/Electomanía 22 Feb–3 Mar 2019?? 21.9 16.5 17.9 13.1 9.5 0.5 7.1 9.2 4.0 SyM Consulting 3–6 May 2018 4,400 55.9 22.3 7.1 14.8 12.7 11.4 18.5 3.1 1.6 0.6 – – 3.8 PSOE 29 Apr 2018???????? – –? – –? TSA/Canarias7 28 Feb–31 Mar 2018 2,995? 22.6 15.3 15.8 11.9 13.2 12.6 – – 0.5 – – 6.8 Hamalgama Métrica/La Provincia 10–25 Aug 2017 1,980? 23.8 20.2 17.3 14.2 9.8 7.0 – –? – – 3.6 2016 general election 26 Jun 2016 59.1 22.5 34.1 8.0 12.0 – – 0.1 20.3 11.6 2015 general election 20 Dec 2015 60.3 22.0 28.5 8.2 23.3 11.4 – 3.1 – 0.2 – 6.5 2015 regional election 24 May 2015 56.1 19.9 18.6 18.2 14.5 10.2 5.9 3.6 2.2 0.6 0.2 – 1.3
Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.
Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 2019 regional election 26 May 2019 16.4 8.6 12.4 5.0 5.1 4.2 0.6 0.4 1.4 – 42.6 4.0 CIS 21 Mar–23 Apr 2019 924 18.4 10.1 10.0 4.4 3.1 5.1 – – 2.1 – 37.2 6.7 8.3 2016 general election 26 Jun 2016 14.3 21.7 5.1 7.6 – 0.1 12.9 35.6 7.4 2015 general election 20 Dec 2015 14.3 18.5 5.3 15.1 7.4 2.0 – 0.1 – 34.3 3.4 2015 regional election 24 May 2015 11.9 11.1 10.9 8.7 6.1 3.6 1.3 0.3 0.1 – 39.0 0.8
Results Overall