A regional election was held in Aragon on 27 May 2007 to elect the 7th 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 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had ruled Aragon since the 1999 election, saw an increase of three seats and obtained its best result since the 1983 election in terms of votes received. The People's Party (PP) also managed to slightly increase its vote share and gained one seat. On the other hand, the Aragonese Union (CHA) lost ground for the first time, losing 5 of its 9 seats and falling behind the Aragonese Party (PAR), which regained third place and increased its vote share for the first time since the 1987 election. United Left (IU) held its single seat and increased its vote share for the first time since 1995.

The PSOE and PAR renewed their coalition administration for a third consecutive time, resulting in Marcelino Iglesias being re-elected as regional President for a third term in office.

Overview Under the 2007 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 election. Amendments earlier in 2007 abolished fixed-term elections, instead allowing the term of the to expire after an early dissolution. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 25 May 2003, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 25 May 2007. The election decree was required to be published in the BOA no later than 1 May 2007, setting the latest possible date for election day on 24 June 2007.

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 and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one.; ; . 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..

The election to the of Aragon was officially called on 3 April 2007 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOA, setting election day for 27 May and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 21 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 65 and a maximum of 80 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 2007 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 27 27 People's Parliamentary Group in the Cortes of Aragon PP 22 22 Aragonese Union Parliamentary Group CHA 9 9 Aragonese Party's Parliamentary Group PAR 8 8 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 ). Amendments earlier in 2007 required a balanced composition of men and women in the electoral lists, so that candidates of either sex made up at least 40 percent of the total composition..

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Marcelino Iglesias Social democracy 37.9% PP Gustavo Alcalde ConservatismChristian democracy 30.7% CHA Chesús Bernal Aragonese nationalismEco-socialism 13.7% PAR José Ángel Biel RegionalismCentrism 11.2% IU Adolfo Barrena SocialismCommunism 3.1%

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 2007 regional election 27 May 2007 66.5 41.1 31.1 8.1 12.1 4.1 10.0 Ipsos/RTVE–FORTA 27 May 2007???????? A+M/Heraldo de Aragón 20 May 2007?? 37.8 33.1 11.0 12.8 3.6 4.7 Celeste-Tel/Terra 9–15 May 2007?? 41.2 28.4 11.5 10.6 4.2 12.8 C&J/El Periódico 7–12 May 2007?? 39.4 34.0 10.9 12.7 3.0 5.4 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 27 Apr–8 May 2007 850? 41.4 32.0 10.9 9.3 3.4 9.4 CIS 9 Apr–6 May 2007 1,538? 42.0 27.9 11.9 10.7 4.3 14.1 A+M/DGA 3–11 Feb 2007 2,586 67.0 36.1 31.0 15.8 11.8 4.2 5.1 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 16–24 Nov 2006???????? 2004 EP election 13 Jun 2004 47.3 45.8 40.0 6.1 2.9 3.1 5.8 2004 general election 14 Mar 2004 77.0 41.3 36.5 12.1 4.7 2.8 4.8 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 70.4 37.9 30.7 13.7 11.2 3.1 7.2

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 2007 regional election 27 May 2007 27.7 21.0 5.5 8.2 2.8 32.0 6.7 CIS 9 Apr–6 May 2007 1,538 24.5 11.2 3.3 4.4 2.1 41.6 10.6 13.3 A+M/DGA 3–11 Feb 2007 2,586 24.2 16.6 5.7 4.5 2.9 29.6 11.5 7.6 2004 EP election 13 Jun 2004 21.8 19.1 2.9 1.4 1.5 52.1 2.7 2004 general election 14 Mar 2004 32.0 28.3 9.4 3.6 2.2 22.0 3.7 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 26.9 21.8 9.7 7.9 2.2 28.7 5.1

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 9 Apr–6 May 2007 1,538 36.3 16.6 4.5 6.0 2.3 9.4 24.8 19.7

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None Lead CIS 9 Apr–6 May 2007 1,538 53.7 8.0 0.5 1.6 0.0 0.9 35.2 45.7

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 9 Apr–6 May 2007 1,538 37.0 11.4 3.9 7.2 1.7 1.7 37.0 25.6 A+M/DGA 3–11 Feb 2007 2,586 35.8 10.9 5.0 3.6 1.9 3.4 38.8 24.9

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 27 May 2007 Cortes of Aragon election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 276,415 41.14 +3.20 30 +3 People's Party (PP) 208,642 31.06 +0.33 23 +1 Aragonese Party (PAR) 81,135 12.08 +0.90 9 +1 Aragonese Union (CHA) 54,752 8.15 −5.56 4 −5 United Left of Aragon (IU) 27,440 4.08 +1.02 1 ±0 The Greens–Federation of Independents of Aragon (LV–FIA)1 4,417 0.66 +0.06 0 ±0 Aragon United Citizens Party (pCUA) 2,463 0.37 New 0 ±0 Family and Life Party (PFyV) 1,105 0.16 −0.02 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 577 0.09 +0.04 0 ±0 Blank ballots 14,890 2.22 +0.13 Total 671,836 67 ±0 Valid votes 671,836 99.31 −0.05 Invalid votes 4,655 0.69 +0.05 Votes cast / turnout 676,491 66.51 −3.85 Abstentions 340,594 33.49 +3.85 Registered voters 1,017,085 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE PP PAR CHA IU % S % S % S % S % S Huesca 44.3 9 29.2 6 12.7 2 7.5 1 3.1 − Teruel 36.1 6 31.1 5 19.1 3 5.9 − 5.0 − Zaragoza 41.2 15 31.5 12 10.6 4 8.7 3 4.2 1 Total 41.1 30 31.1 23 12.1 9 8.1 4 4.1 1 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 5 July 2007 Required majority → 34 out of 67 Abstentions Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography