8 May 1983 1987 → Turnout 462,212 (68.5%) 1983 1983 | Registered 675,082 1978 1983 26 16 | |
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The 1983 Murcian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st Regional Assembly of Murcia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of the Region of Murcia. All 43 seats in the Regional Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) went on to win a comfortable absolute majority of both seats and votes, emerging as the largest party in the Region. The People's Coalition, an electoral alliance led by the right-wing People's Alliance (AP), which included the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Union (UL), became the second political force and the main opposition party, whereas the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) also entered the Assembly, obtaining 1 seat.
As a result of the election, Socialist Andrés Hernández Ros, who since 1979 had been the President of the Regional Council of Murcia (the pre-autonomic regional government), became the first democratically elected President of the region.
Electoral system
No electoral law was in force at the time, with election rules for the Regional Assembly regulated under the electoral system for the Congress of Deputies and special provisions within the regional Statute of Autonomy. The Regional Assembly of Murcia was elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation. Under the Statute, the Regional Assembly was entitled to a minimum of 35 members and a maximum of 45, which the decree calling for the region's elections provisionally set to 43. All seats were allocated to five multi-member districts—with a provisional distribution awarding seven seats to District I, 10 to District II, 19 to District III, four to District IV and three to District V—. A regional threshold of 5% of valid votes—which included blank ballots—was applied, with parties not reaching the threshold not taken into consideration for seat distribution.
Unlike other uniprovincial autonomous communities, electoral districts did not correspond to a province. They were, instead, established by law as follow:
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 Regional Assembly. Groups of electors were required to obtain the signatures of at least 1/1000 of registered electors—provided that this amount did exceed of 500—in a particular district in order to be able to field candidates.
As per the Statute of Autonomy, the Regional 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. 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.