1 November 2006 2010 → 7 January 2002 15 July 2006 46 seats, 30.9% 42 seats, 31.2% | Registered 5,321,274 0.3% 15 July 2006 25 November 1996 | |
 | ||
Turnout 2,982,108 (56.0%)
6.5 pp | ||
The 2006 Catalan parliamentary election was held on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, to elect the 8th Parliament of Catalonia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. At stake were all 135 seats in the Parliament, determining the President of Catalonia.
Contents
Electoral system
The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Catalonia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. As the community did not have an electoral law of its own passed into law at the time of the 2006 election, the electoral system came regulated under the community's Statute of Autonomy rules, and subsidiarily, under the Spanish general electoral law (Organic Law 5/1985, of the General Electoral Regime). As a result of the lack of an autonomous electoral law, seats were allocated to districts through specific Laws or Decrees for each election. For the 2006 election, seats were distributed as follows: Barcelona (85), Girona (17), Lleida (15) and Tarragona (18).
Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which includes blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.
Background
The November 2006 Catalan parliament election was an early one (the original election date was due for the Fall of 2007, roughly one year after the actual early election took place). This was mostly a result of the uneasy and controversial redaction of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia amended text, which has further expanded the authority of the Catalan Government ever since it was passed in June 2006.
The Statute amendment was approved in a referendum on June 18, 2006 in which 73.24% of voters were in favour of the new Statute, 20.57% of the votes were against. This referendum was noted for its huge abstention: only 48.85% of the electorate participated in it.
Since the 2003 elections a coalition of three left-wing parties, Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens-United and Alternative Left (ICV-EUiA) had been in power, with Pasqual Maragall as President. However, in May 2006 ERC, following internal tensions, left the coalition due to its disagreement on the final draft of the Statute of Autonomy which themselves had partially redacted, thus leaving Maragall without a majority and forcing him to call for this early election. On June 21, 2006 Maragall announced his intention to personally step down at the upcoming election, arguably due to the political erosion his government had suffered after an uneasy relationship with ERC.
Besides the issue of Catalan nationalism, the main issues of the campaign were taxes, social security, housing and immigration.
Unlike the previous 2003 election, when Convergence and Union (CiU) achieved a plurality of seats in the autonomous Parliament but did not get the highest number of votes (PSC achieved a narrow lead in votes, the discrepancy between votes number and seats being explained by the electoral law) in this occasion CiU won the elections both in seats and votes numbers. Still those weren't enough to have an absolute majority. Then, after coalition negotiations, the PSC, ERC and ICV-EUiA agreed to renew the three-party coalition that had been in power, which made PSC's leader José Montilla President.
This election saw a new party (Citizens-Party of the Citizenry) entering the autonomous parliament, which has increased the already high diversity of this parliament from five political parties with representation to now six, which contrasts with the increasingly bipartisan Spanish -and European in general- politic scenario.
Parties
Vote estimations
Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.
Parliamentary seat projections
Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.
Exit poll