Registered 194,994 18 15 63,848 54,121 Date 8 May 1983 | Turnout 136,964 (70.2%) 15 2 54,121 10,102 Winner José María de Miguel Gil | |
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The 1983 Riojan parliamentary election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st Parliament of La Rioja, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of La Rioja. All 35 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.
The election was won by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which obtained an absolute majority of seats, being the only time in which the party achieved this in a regional election in La Rioja.
The People's Coalition, an electoral alliance led by the People's Alliance (AP), which also included the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Union (UL), emerged as the second largest grouping in the Parliament, while the newly created regionalist Progressive Riojan Party (PRP) came third. Neither the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) or the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), the only other parties standing in the election, were able to meet the electoral threshold and failed to gain any parliamentary representation.
Electoral system
The number of seats in the Parliament of La Rioja was set to 35 for the 1983-1987 period. All Parliament members were elected in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Community's territory (the province of La Rioja), using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. As the community had not passed an electoral law of its own at the time, the electoral system came regulated under Royal Decree 452/1983.
Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the community (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.