A regional election was held in Galicia on 19 October 1997 to elect the 5th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview Under the 1981 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Galicia 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 Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. 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 Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place 54 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 17 October 1993, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 17 October 1997. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 23 September 1997, setting the latest possible date for election day on 22 November 1997.

The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Galicia at any given time and call a snap election, provided that it did not occur before one year after 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..

The Parliament of Galicia was officially dissolved on 26 August 1997 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOG, setting election day for 19 October and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 18 November..

Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Galicia 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 Parliament of Galicia had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 80 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 75. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 10 seats and the remaining 35 distributed in proportion to population—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five 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 Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:.

Seats Constituencies 24 La Coruña 22 Pontevedra 15 Lugo 14 Orense

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 dissolution.

+ Parliamentary composition in August 1997 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group of Galicia PP 43 43 Socialists of Galicia's Parliamentary Group PSdeG–PSOE 19 19 Galician Nationalist Bloc's Parliamentary Group BNG 13 13

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 Manuel Fraga ConservatismChristian democracy 52.1% PSdeG–PSOE/EU–EG/OV Abel Caballero Social democracy 27.1% BNG Xosé Manuel Beiras Galician nationalismLeft-wing nationalismSocialism 18.4%

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; 38 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout BNG Lead 1997 regional election 19 Oct 1997 62.5 52.2 19.5 24.8 0.9 27.4 PP 17 Oct 1997????? –? Sigma Dos/El Mundo 6–9 Oct 1997 1,000? 50.0–52.0 22.0–24.0 20.0–22.0 2.0–3.0 28.0 Demoscopia/El País 3–8 Oct 1997 2,500 63–64 51.5 23.1 22.8 1.1 28.4 PP 7 Oct 1997?? 52.3 24.5 20.5 – 27.8 Opina/La Vanguardia 3–4 Oct 1997 1,000 65 50.7 25.1 21.5 1.2 25.6 PP 29 Sep 1997????? –? Sondaxe/La Voz de Galicia 28 Sep 1997????? –? DECO/PSOE 23–28 Sep 1997 2,265? 46.1 31.6 19.3 – 14.5 CIS 19–26 Sep 1997 2,196 69.3 51.5 25.2 20.5 1.4 26.3 Sondaxe/La Voz de Galicia 26 Jul 1997 2,904? 50.0 24.0 19.0 – 26.0 Infortécnica 20 Jun–8 Jul 1997 3,091???? –? DECO/PSOE 10–20 Apr 1997 2,000???? –? Obradoiro de Socioloxía/PP 1–4 Apr 1997 1,400? 48.0 20.0 20.0 – 28.0 Sondaxe/La Voz de Galicia 22 Nov 1996 3,200???? –? 1996 general election 3 Mar 1996 71.4 48.3 33.5 12.9 3.6 14.8 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 50.3 54.6 24.8 11.4 5.1 29.8 1993 regional election 17 Oct 1993 64.2 52.1 23.7 18.4 3.0 28.4

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size BNG Lead 1997 regional election 19 Oct 1997 30.9 11.6 15.3 0.5 33.7 15.6 CIS 19–26 Sep 1997 2,196 35.9 12.7 14.4 – 29.2 5.0 21.5 1996 general election 3 Mar 1996 35.6 24.2 9.7 2.7 26.2 11.4 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 28.3 12.6 5.9 2.6 48.2 15.7 1993 regional election 17 Oct 1993 32.7 14.7 11.7 1.9 34.2 18.0

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 BNG Other/None Lead Opina/La Vanguardia 3–4 Oct 1997 1,000 36.9 16.0 13.8 0.6 4.4 28.3 20.9

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 BNG Other/None Lead Opina/La Vanguardia 3–4 Oct 1997 1,000 77.6 2.9 1.0 0.0 0.3 18.2 74.7

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead Opina/La Vanguardia 3–4 Oct 1997 1,000 37.7 13.6 13.3 6.3 29.1 24.1

Predicted President The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood for each leader to become president of the Regional Government of Galicia.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead Opina/La Vanguardia 3–4 Oct 1997 1,000 76.7 3.4 1.3 1.3 17.3 73.3

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 19 October 1997 Parliament of Galicia election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− People's Party (PP) 832,751 52.19 +0.05 42 −1 Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) 395,435 24.78 +6.40 18 +5 Socialists' Party–Galician Left–The Greens (PSdeG–PSOE/EU–EG/Os Verdes)1 310,508 19.46 −7.61 15 −4 United Left (IU) 13,964 0.88 New 0 ±0 Galician Democracy (DG) 11,538 0.72 New 0 ±0 Galician People's Front (FPG) 3,395 0.21 New 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 2,543 0.16 −0.01 0 ±0 Party of Self-employed and Professionals (AUTONOMO) 2,136 0.13 New 0 ±0 Social Democratic Party of Law (SDD) 1,129 0.07 New 0 ±0 The Move (Movida) 939 0.06 New 0 ±0 Galician Phalanx of the CNSO (FG–JONS) 392 0.02 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 20,937 1.31 +0.40 Total 1,595,667 75 ±0 Valid votes 1,595,667 99.50 −0.02 Invalid votes 8,064 0.50 +0.02 Votes cast / turnout 1,603,731 62.51 −1.68 Abstentions 961,638 37.49 +1.68 Registered voters 2,565,369 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PP BNG PSdeG % S % S % S La Coruña 49.8 13 26.3 6 20.1 5 Lugo 57.7 9 19.8 3 18.9 3 Orense 56.7 8 21.3 3 19.6 3 Pontevedra 50.8 12 26.7 6 18.8 4 Total 52.2 42 24.8 18 19.5 15 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 3 December 1997 Required majority → 38 out of 75 Abstentions Absentees Sources

2001 motion of no confidence Motion of no confidence Ballot → 29 January 2001 Required majority → 38 out of 75 Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography