13 June 1999 May 2003 → 8 February 1987 15 May 1998 54 seats, 51.0% 32 seats, 29.7% | Registered 4,281,075 3.7% 15 May 1998 24 February 1993 | |
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Turnout 2,606,325 (60.9%)
9.5 pp Winner Alberto Ruiz‑Gallardón | ||
The 1999 Madrilenian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 5th Assembly of Madrid, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Madrid. All 102 seats in the Assembly were up for election, a decrease of one compared to the previous election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.
The election saw the People's Party (PP) renew the absolute majority in the Assembly for a second successive time, slightly increasing their vote share and gaining a seat. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which ran with Cristina Almeida as candidate, increased its vote share after three consecutive elections losing ground. PSOE's recovery came at the expense of the United Left (IU), which lost half its votes and seats.
As a result of the election, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón was able to be re-elected for a second term in office.
Electoral system
The Assembly of Madrid was elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation. Under the regional Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly was entitled to one member per each 50,000 inhabitants or fraction greater than 25,000, according to the most updated census data. As the updated population census for the 1999 election was the corresponding to year 1998 (5,091,336), the Assembly size was set to 102. All seats were allocated to a single multi-member district, with a threshold of 5% of valid votes—which included blank ballots—. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for the seat distribution.
Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, with all residents over eighteen and in the full enjoyment of all political rights entitled to vote. Concurrently, residents meeting the previous criteria and not involved in any cause of ineligibility were eligible for the Assembly. Groups of electors were required to obtain the signatures of at least 0.5% of registered electors in the district in order to be able to field candidates.
A 1998 amendment to the Statute of Autonomy granted the President the ability to dissolve the chamber and call a snap election, but limiting the exercise of such prerogative to the second or third years of the legislature. Elections were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years, with early dissolutions not changing the period to the next ordinary election, meaning that elected deputies in a snap election merely served out what remained of their ordinary four-year parliamentary terms. The Assembly was to be automatically dissolved in the event of unsuccessful investiture attempts failing to elect a regional President within a two month-period from the first ballot, triggering a snap election likewise.