10 June 1987 1991 → Turnout 512,444 (73.0%)
4.5 pp 1987 1987 | Registered 702,068 4.0% 31 March 1984 1987 26 seats, 52.2% 16 seats, 35.4% | |
 | ||
The 1987 Murcian parliamentary election was held on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, to elect the 2nd Regional Assembly of Murcia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of the Region of Murcia. All 45 seats in the Regional Assembly were up for election, an increase of two 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 1987 European Parliament election.
Contents
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) emerged as the largest party in the Assembly, but lost nearly 9 percentage points, falling from over 52% to just below 44%. However, Murcia's division into several electoral districts allowed the PSOE to minimize its loses, losing 1 seat from 1983 but still retaining a comfortable absolute majority in the Assembly. The People's Alliance (AP) stood alone in this election, having previously been a founding member of the late People's Coalition. Despite its former allies, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Party (PL) not running for election in Murcia unlike what they did in other communities, AP still lost votes to the growing Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), a party founded by former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, which broke into the Assembly with 11.9% of the share and 3 seats.
Socialist Carlos Collado, who had accessed power in 1984 after the resignation of former regional premier Andrés Hernández Ros, was re-elected as President of Murcia for his first full-term in office.
Electoral system
The Regional Assembly of Murcia was elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation. Under the regional Statute of Autonomy, the Regional Assembly was entitled to a minimum of 35 members and a maximum of 45, which the regional electoral law set to a fixed-number of 45. All seats were allocated to five multi-member districts—each entitled to an initial minimum of one seat, with the remaining 40 allocated among the constituencies in proportion to their populations—. 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% of registered electors 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.
Opinion polls
Individual 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 with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance of a tie, the figures with the highest percentages are shaded. in the case of seat projections, they are displayed in bold and in a different font. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. 23 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Regional Assembly of Murcia.