13 June 1999 2003 → Turnout 616,397 (67.7%)
8.3 pp 1995 1995 | Registered 911,054 8.8% 5 October 1991 1995 26 seats, 52.3% 15 seats, 31.7% | |
 | ||
The 1999 Murcian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 5th 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. 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.
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 45 members and a maximum of 55, 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.
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 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 likewise.