Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Spanish regional elections, 2011

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22 May 2011
  
2015 →

2 September 2003
  
22 July 2000

367 seats, 45.5%
  
327 seats, 37.0%

Registered
  
19,319,332

22 July 2000
  
14 December 2008

Start date
  
May 22, 2011

Spanish regional elections, 2011 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Turnout
  
13,025,799 (67.4%) 0.9 pp

Spanish regional elections 2011 top 5 facts


The 2011 Spanish regional elections were held on Sunday, 22 May 2011 in Spain, to elect the regional parliaments of 13 of the 17 autonomous communities: Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and León, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, La Rioja and the Valencian Community. Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country did not held elections that day because they had separate electoral cycles. Municipal elections were held throughout Spain the same day.

Contents

The days before the elections were marked by the protests which had been held in different cities across Spain since 15 May.

The elections resulted in a landslide victory for the opposition People's Party (PP). The governing Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) was beaten in every region, including Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha, which the party had held since the first regional elections in 1983. The PP won outright majorities in 8 out of the 13 communities, and was able to govern in another 2 through pacts.

Following the election, the PSOE named Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba as prime ministerial candidate for the incoming general election, initially scheduled for March 2012 but finally held in November 2011.

Election date

The determination of the election date varied depending on the autonomous community, as they had different regulations. Initially, regional presidents didn't have the power to dissolve the regional parliaments and call elections of their own, but this notion evolved over time throughout different reforms of the autonomies' electoral laws and/or Statutes of Autonomy.

  • The presidents of the Valencian Community (from 2006), Aragon, the Balearic Islands, Castile and León (2007) and Navarre (2010) could dissolve the regional legislatures and hold elections at any time different than the date set by law (usually the fourth Sunday of May).
  • The presidents of Madrid (from 1990), Castile-La Mancha (1997), Cantabria, Murcia (1998), Asturias, Extremadura and La Rioja (1999) could dissolve the regional legislatures and hold elections at a time different than the date set by law, but these did not change the period to the next ordinary election, with newly elected MPs merely serving out what remained of the previous projected four-year parliamentary term.
  • By the time of the 2011 regional elections, the President of the Canary Islands was the only chief of a regional government that hadn't been granted the power to dissolve the regional legislature, and elections in Canarias were only held at the fixed date set by law.

    • The fourth Sunday of May 2011 was 22 May, and elections were set to be held that day.

    References

    Spanish regional elections, 2011 Wikipedia
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