27 May 2007 2011 → Turnout 655,043 (68.0%)
2.0 pp 18 September 2004 2006 | Registered 963,221 3.0% 5 October 1991 18 September 2004 28 seats, 56.7% 16 seats, 34.1% | |
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The 2007 Murcian parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 27 May 2007, to elect the 7th 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.
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. Gender quotas were introduced in 2007, requiring for party lists to be composed of at least 40% of candidates of either gender and for each group of five candidates to contain at least two males and two females. 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.