The 1979 Spanish general election was held on Thursday, 1 March 1979, to elect the 1st Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 208 seats in the Senate.
The Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override.[1][2] Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights.[3][4][5]
For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed listproportional 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.[3][6] The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.[7]
As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled to the following seats:[8][9]
For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open listpartial 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, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants.[10][11] The law also provided for by-elections to fill Senate seats vacated up to two years into the legislature.[12]
Election date
The term of the Cortes elected in the 1977 election was not to be continued beyond 15 June 1981 in the event they were not dissolved earlier.[13] An election was required to be held within from 30 to 60 days after the date of expiry of the Cortes Generales,[3] setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales on Friday, 14 August 1981.
The prime minister had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved, and a new election called, if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot.[14] Barred this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of 2024 there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.
The Spanish Cortes were officially dissolved on 1 January 1979 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the Official State Gazette (BOE), setting the election date for 1 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 23 March (for the Congress) and 27 March (for the Senate).[9]
Parties and candidates
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.[15]
Below is a list of the main parties and coalitions which contested the election:
3Foral Union of the Basque Country results are compared to the combined totals of People's Alliance in the Basque Country and Basque Independent Democrats in the 1977 election.
3Foral Union of the Basque Country results are compared to the combined totals of People's Alliance in the Basque Country and Basque Independent Democrats in the 1977 election.
^Results for AN18 (0.53%, 0 seats) and CJA (0.04%, 0 seats) in the 1977 election.
^Results for ESB/PSV (0.20%, 0 seats) and EAE/ANV (0.04%, 0 seats) in the 1977 election.
^The percentage of blank ballots is calculated over the official number of valid votes cast, irrespective of the total number of votes shown as a result of adding up the individual results for each party.
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