A regional election was held in Aragon on 25 May 2003 to elect the 6th of the autonomous community. All 67 seats in the were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.

The election saw the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had ruled Aragon since the previous election, becoming the largest party in the Courts for the first time since the 1991 election. The PSOE gains came at the expense of the People's Party (PP), which saw a drop of 7 points on its vote share. The Aragonese Union (CHA) made gains and overtook the Aragonese Party (PAR) as the third largest party in the . For the PAR, this was the fourth consecutive election where it lost ground. United Left (IU) held its single seat, albeit with a slightly reduced vote share.

The PSOE and PAR maintained the coalition administration formed after the previous election. As a result, Marcelino Iglesias was re-elected as President of Aragon.

Overview Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the Cortes of Aragon was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president.. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions..

Date The term of the of Aragon expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 54 days before the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA).; ( by ). The previous election was held on 13 June 1999, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 25 May 2003.

The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the of Aragon at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no nationwide election had been called and that dissolution did not occur either during the first legislative session or during the last year of parliament before its planned expiration, nor before one year after a previous one. ( by ); . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the 's reconvening, the chamber was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called. Any snap election held as a result of these circumstances did not alter the date of the chamber's next ordinary election, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term.;

The election to the of Aragon was officially called on 1 April 2003 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOA, setting election day for 25 May and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 20 June..

Electoral system Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Aragon and with full political rights, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated.; ( by ).

The of Aragon had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 75 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 67. All were elected in three multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 13 seats and the remaining 28 distributed in proportion to population (with the seat-to-population ratio in the most populated province not exceeding 2.75 times that of the least populated one)—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; . The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each constituency was entitled the following seats:.

Seats Constituencies 35 Zaragoza 18 Huesca 14 Teruel

The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes. ( by ).

Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of the election call.

+ Parliamentary composition in April 2003 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group in the Cortes of Aragon PP 28 28 Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 23 23 Aragonese Party's Parliamentary Group PAR 10 10 Aragonese Union Parliamentary Group CHA 5 5 Mixed Parliamentary Group IU 1 1

Parties and candidates The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 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. ( by ).

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PP Gustavo Alcalde ConservatismChristian democracy 38.2% PSOE Marcelino Iglesias Social democracy 30.8% PAR José Ángel Biel RegionalismCentrism 13.3% CHA Chesús Bernal Aragonese nationalismEco-socialism 11.0% IU Adolfo Barrena SocialismCommunism 3.9%

Opinion polls The tables below list opinion polling results 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.

Voting intention estimates The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 34 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Cortes of Aragon.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 70.4 30.7 37.9 11.2 13.7 3.1 7.2 Sigma Dos/Antena 3 25 May 2003???????? Ipsos–Eco/RTVE 25 May 2003???????? C&J/El Periódico 12–17 May 2003?? 29.0 37.9 13.8 13.3? 8.9 CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,339 68.6 30.4 35.6 13.9 14.5 3.9 5.2 C&J/El Periódico 27 Apr 2003?? 28.0 38.1 15.2?? 10.1 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 492 71.6 35.1 33.1 10.7 15.3 4.1 2.0 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 71.4 47.2 31.1 5.4 10.4 3.5 16.1 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 64.6 38.2 30.8 13.3 11.0 3.9 7.4

Voting preferences The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 21.8 26.9 7.9 9.7 2.2 28.7 5.1 CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,339 13.0 21.7 5.0 7.2 2.1 42.1 7.4 8.7 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 492 20.1 21.1 3.5 8.1 1.6 35.4 8.1 1.0 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 33.9 22.2 3.9 7.5 2.5 27.8 11.7 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 24.9 20.0 8.6 7.2 2.5 35.0 4.9

Victory preferences The table below lists opinion polling on the victory preferences for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,339 16.9 29.2 6.6 9.6 2.5 0.4 34.8 12.3

Victory likelihood The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a municipal election taking place.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,339 9.7 43.5 2.4 0.6 0.2 0.1 43.5 33.8

Preferred President The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become president of the Government of Aragon.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,339 8.6 30.8 5.6 7.0 0.6 1.0 46.5 22.2

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Cortes of Aragon election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 270,468 37.94 +7.13 27 +4 People's Party (PP) 219,058 30.73 −7.48 22 −6 Aragonese Union (CHA) 97,763 13.71 +2.67 9 +4 Aragonese Party (PAR) 79,670 11.18 −2.07 8 −2 United Left of Aragon (IU) 21,795 3.06 −0.80 1 ±0 The Greens–SOS Nature (LV–SOS)1 4,308 0.60 +0.05 0 ±0 Aragonese Initiative (INAR) 1,703 0.24 New 0 ±0 Family and Life Party (PFyV) 1,300 0.18 New 0 ±0 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 1,056 0.15 New 0 ±0 Republican Left (IR) 519 0.07 New 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 330 0.05 −0.10 0 ±0 Blank ballots 14,874 2.09 +0.01 Total 712,844 67 ±0 Valid votes 712,844 99.36 +0.07 Invalid votes 4,613 0.64 −0.07 Votes cast / turnout 717,457 70.36 +5.76 Abstentions 302,187 29.64 −5.76 Registered voters 1,019,644 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE PP CHA PAR IU % S % S % S % S % S Huesca 42.4 8 29.7 6 10.0 2 12.3 2 2.6 − Teruel 34.8 5 33.6 5 7.6 1 18.2 3 3.7 − Zaragoza 37.4 14 30.5 11 15.7 6 9.7 3 3.1 1 Total 37.9 27 30.7 22 13.7 9 11.2 8 3.1 1 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 3 July 2003 Required majority → 34 out of 67 Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography