1992 Catalan regional election

1992 Catalan regional election
All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia; 68 seats needed for a majority
	Opinion polls
Registered	4,839,071 6.0%
Turnout	2,655,051 (54.9%); 4.5 pp
	Election result by constituency
President before election; Jordi Pujol; CDC (CiU)	Elected President ; Jordi Pujol; CDC (CiU)

The 1992 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 15 March 1992, to elect the 4th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview

Electoral system

The Parliament of Catalonia was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president.^[1] Transitory Provision Fourth of the Statute established a specific electoral procedure for elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, of application for as long as a regional electoral law was not approved, to be supplemented by the provisions within the national electoral law. Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Catalonia and in full enjoyment of their political rights.

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, with each being allocated a fixed number of seats:^[1]

Seats	Constituencies
85	Barcelona
18	Tarragona
17	Girona
15	Lleida

The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.^[2]

Election date

The term of the Parliament of Catalonia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The regional president was required to call an election fifteen days prior to the date of expiry of parliament, with election day taking place within sixty days after the call. The previous election was held on 29 May 1988, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 29 May 1992. The election was required to be called no later than 5 May 1992, with it taking place on the sixtieth day from the call, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Monday, 13 July 1992.^[1]

The president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous one under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.^[3]^[4]

Parties and candidates

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.^[5]

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

Candidacy		Parties and alliances	Leading candidate		Ideology	Previous result		Gov.	Ref.
Candidacy		Parties and alliances	Leading candidate		Ideology	Votes (%)	Seats	Gov.	Ref.
	CiU	List Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC)		Jordi Pujol	Catalan nationalism Centrism	45.72%	69	Y
	PSC–PSOE	List Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE)		Raimon Obiols	Social democracy	29.78%	42	N
	IC	List Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) Agreement of Left Nationalists (ENE)		Rafael Ribó	Eco-socialism Green politics	7.76%	9	N
	PP	List People's Party (PP)		Alejo Vidal-Quadras	Conservatism Christian democracy	5.31%^[a]	6	N
	ERC	List Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)		Àngel Colom	Catalan independence Left-wing nationalism Social democracy	4.14%	6	N	^[6]
	CDS	List Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)		Teresa Sandoval	Centrism Liberalism	3.83%	3	N

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are 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. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout			IC					Lead
Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout								Lead

1992 regional election	15 Mar 1992	—	54.9	46.2 70	27.5 40	6.5 7	^[b]	8.0 11	0.9 0	6.0 7	18.7

Sigma Dos/Diari de Barcelona^{[p 1]}	8 Mar 1992	2,400	?	46.1 70	29.0 42	8.0 9	^[b]	5.2 6	1.6 0	6.4 8	17.1
RGR/Avui^{[p 1]}	8 Mar 1992	1,000	?	47.5 71/73	27.6 39/41	8.3 9/10	^[b]	5.3 7	1.8 0	5.1 5/6	19.9
Gabise/El Observador^{[p 1]}	8 Mar 1992	800	?	46.6 68/71	30.8 41/43	6.7 6/7	^[b]	5.6 7/8	2.0 0	6.1 7	15.8
Marketing Comunicación/ERC^{[p 2]}	8 Mar 1992	4,780	55	? 76/78	? 36/38	? 5	^[b]	? 12	–	? 4/5	?
OTR–IS/El Periódico^{[p 3]}	3–5 Mar 1992	2,000	57	46.4 69/72	29.2 40/43	7.7 8/9	^[b]	5.6 7	–	6.3 7	17.2
Opina/La Vanguardia^{[p 4]}^{[p 1]}	2–4 Mar 1992	2,004	?	47.9 69/72	28.2 40/42	7.0 8	^[b]	6.5 8/9	1.5 0	5.6 5/7	19.7
Demoscopia/El País^{[p 5]}^{[p 1]}	29 Feb–4 Mar 1992	1,600	58	46.5 71/72	27.6 39/40	7.1 7/8	^[b]	6.2 8	1.1 0	6.3 8	18.9
Opina/La Vanguardia^{[p 6]}	17–19 Feb 1992	2,000	60–65	47.5 69/72	28.5 41/42	8.5 9/10	^[b]	5.0 7	1.0 0	5.0 6/7	19.0
Demoscopia/El País^{[p 7]}	8–14 Feb 1992	?	58	46.4 68/71	30.1 40/44	6.9 6/9	^[b]	6.0 7/8	1.6 0	6.2 8	16.3
OTR–IS/El Periódico^{[p 8]}^{[p 1]}	8–11 Feb 1992	2,000	?	46.6 70/72	27.9 39/42	8.2 8/9	^[b]	5.6 7	1.8 0	6.5 7/8	18.7
Producciones 5/Avui^{[p 1]}	19 Jan 1992	2,900	?	46.8 67/70	28.8 42/43	7.5 8/10	^[b]	5.1 6	2.6 0/3	6.0 7	18.0
Central de Campo/PSC^{[p 9]}	3 Jan 1992	?	?	40.0	32.0	–	^[b]	–	–	–	8.0
1991 local elections	26 May 1991	—	57.7	33.4	37.5	9.6	^[b]	3.4	1.0	6.7	4.1
1989 general election	29 Oct 1989	—	67.6	32.7 (54)	35.6 (53)	7.3 (8)	^[b]	2.7 (0)	4.3 (4)	10.6 (16)	2.9
1989 EP election	15 Jun 1989	—	51.5	27.5 (48)	36.4 (60)	5.5 (7)	^[b]	3.3 (4)	3.7 (3)	8.6 (13)	8.9

1988 regional election	29 May 1988	—	59.4	45.7 69	29.8 42	7.8 9	5.3 6	4.1 6	3.8 3	–	15.9

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 15 March 1992 Parliament of Catalonia election results →
Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats

Parties and alliances		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	1,221,233	46.19	+0.47	70	+1
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE)	728,311	27.55	–2.23	40	–2
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	210,366	7.96	+3.82	11	+5
	Initiative for Catalonia (IC)	171,794	6.50	–1.26	7	–2
	People's Party (PP)¹	157,772	5.97	+0.66	7	+1
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	24,033	0.91	–2.92	0	–3
	Party of the Communists of Catalonia (PCC)	22,181	0.84	New	0	±0
	The Greens–Green Union (EV–UV)	14,041	0.53	New	0	±0
	Ruiz-Mateos Group (ARM)	13,067	0.49	New	0	±0
	Green Alternative–Ecologist Movement of Catalonia (AV–MEC)	10,323	0.39	–0.22	0	±0
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	10,270	0.39	+0.18	0	±0
	The Ecologists (LVE)	9,879	0.37	+0.05	0	±0
	Ecologist Party of Catalonia–VERDE (PEC–VERDE)	7,786	0.29	+0.07	0	±0
	Free Catalonia (CLL)	5,241	0.20	New	0	±0
	Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE)	2,258	0.09	–0.01	0	±0
	Independent Socialists (SI)²	2,080	0.08	+0.04	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	1,752	0.07	–0.01	0	±0
	Lleida Republican Youth (JRLL)	431	0.02	New	0	±0
Blank ballots		31,092	1.18	+0.55

Total		2,643,910			135	±0

Valid votes		2,643,910	99.58	+0.09
Invalid votes		11,141	0.42	–0.09
Votes cast / turnout		2,655,051	54.87	–4.50
Abstentions		2,184,020	45.13	+4.50
Registered voters		4,839,071

Sources^[7]^[8]
Footnotes: ¹ People's Party results are compared to People's Alliance totals in the 1988 election. ² Independent Socialists results are compared to Alliance for the Republic totals in the 1988 election.

Popular vote

CiU			46.19%
PSC–PSOE			27.55%
ERC			7.96%
IC			6.50%
PP			5.97%
Others			4.67%
Blank ballots			1.18%

Seats

CiU			51.85%
PSC–PSOE			29.63%
ERC			8.15%
IC			5.19%
PP			5.19%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency	CiU		PSC		ERC		IC		PP

	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
Barcelona	44.6	41	28.9	27	7.2	6	7.4	6	5.9	5
Girona	54.3	11	21.8	4	11.6	2	3.4	−	4.0	−
Lleida	53.6	9	21.8	4	9.8	1	2.9	−	6.9	1
Tarragona	45.8	9	26.5	5	9.2	2	4.7	1	7.7	1
Total	46.2	70	27.5	40	8.0	11	6.5	7	6.0	7

Sources^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[8]

Aftermath

Ballot →		9 April 1992
Investiture Jordi Pujol (CDC)
Required majority →		68 out of 135 Y
	Yes • CiU (70)	70 / 135
	No • PSC (40) • ERC (11) • IC (7)	58 / 135
	Abstentions • PP (7)	7 / 135
	Absentees	0 / 135
Sources^[8]