A regional election was held in Galicia on 17 October 1993 to elect the 4th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

The People's Party (PP) won with an increased absolute majority over 1989, resulting in Manuel Fraga being re-elected for a second term in office as President of Galicia. The Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG–PSOE) suffered from a crisis of leadership and from a desire of punishment to the national government of Felipe González, losing many votes in the way. Meanwhile, the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) began to appear as the main alternative to power thanks to its spokesman, Xosé Manuel Beiras's, charisma.

The Galician Unity coalition of United Left (EU) and the Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left (PSG–EG) did not enter Parliament due to a change of the electoral law which raised the electoral threshold from 3% to 5%. Galician Coalition (CG) also failed to enter Parliament, and only got 0.4% of the share.

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 between 54 and 60 days after the decree's publication.; ( by ). The previous election was held on 17 December 1989, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 17 December 1993. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 23 November 1993, setting the latest possible date for election day on 22 January 1994.

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 24 August 1993 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOG, setting election day for 17 October and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 16 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 21 Pontevedra 15 Lugo, 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 1993 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group of Galicia PP 38 38 Socialists of Galicia's Parliamentary Group PSdeG–PSOE 28 28 Galician Nationalist Bloc's Parliamentary Group UPG 2 5 EN 2 CS 1 Mixed Parliamentary Group UG 2 4 CG 2

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 44.0% PSdeG–PSOE Antolín Sánchez Social democracy 32.7% BNG Xosé Manuel Beiras Galician nationalismLeft-wing nationalismSocialism 9.3% EU–UG Camilo Nogueira SocialismCommunism 5.3% CG César Quintián Noas Galician nationalismLiberalismChristian democracy 3.6%

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 CG Lead 1993 regional election 17 Oct 1993 64.2 52.1 23.7 18.4 0.4 3.0 28.4 Demoscopia/El País 10 Oct 1993 2,500 66 51.9 25.5 15.4 – 3.8 26.4 ICP–Research/Diario 16 10 Oct 1993? 61.9 47.0 27.8 13.3 –? 19.2 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 10 Oct 1993????? –?? Eco Consulting/Faro de Vigo 10 Oct 1993????? –?? Ecom 6/El Correo Gallego 10 Oct 1993????? –?? Gallup/La Voz de Galicia 10 Oct 1993????? –?? Sondaxe/La Voz de Galicia 3 Oct 1993?? 51.0 24.1 16.5 –? 26.9 PP 3 Oct 1993 1,800???? –?? ABC 17 Sep 1993????? –?? 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 69.6 47.1 36.0 8.0 0.3 4.7 11.1 IMOP 18–29 May 1990?? 45.2 30.6 9.6 – – – 14.6 1989 regional election 17 Dec 1989 59.5 44.0 32.7 8.0 3.8 3.6 1.5 11.3

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size BNG CG Lead 1993 regional election 17 Oct 1993 32.7 14.7 11.7 0.3 1.9 34.2 18.0 CIS 24 Sep–5 Oct 1993 2,199 27.7 12.9 10.8 0.4 3.1 37.3 5.9 14.8 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 33.6 25.2 5.8 0.2 3.4 28.7 8.4 CIS 7–19 Nov 1992 2,192 20.3 13.3 6.6 2.8 0.7 1.1 42.1 11.6 7.0 1989 regional election 17 Dec 1989 25.8 19.0 4.7 2.2 2.1 0.9 40.8 6.8

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 24 Sep–5 Oct 1993 2,199 36.0 20.4 10.2 33.4 15.6

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 24 Sep–5 Oct 1993 2,199 59.5 4.1 6.5 29.9 55.4

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 17 October 1993 Parliament of Galicia election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− People's Party (PP) 763,839 52.14 +8.12 43 +5 Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG–PSOE) 346,831 23.68 −9.00 19 −9 Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)1 269,233 18.38 +9.05 13 +8 United Left–Galician Unity (EU–UG)2 44,902 3.07 −2.20 0 −2 Galician Coalition (CG) 6,098 0.42 −3.22 0 −2 Ruiz-Mateos Group–European Democratic Alliance (ARM–ADE) 5,293 0.36 −0.17 0 ±0 The Greens of Galicia (Os Verdes) 4,682 0.32 +0.08 0 ±0 Galician Alternative (AG) 3,187 0.22 New 0 ±0 The Ecologists (LE) 2,987 0.20 −0.01 0 ±0 Humanist Citizen Platform (PCH) 2,508 0.17 +0.11 0 ±0 United People's Assembly (APU) 1,492 0.10 New 0 ±0 Coalition for a New Socialist Party (NPS)3 503 0.03 ±0.00 0 ±0 Blank ballots 13,355 0.91 +0.51 Total 1,464,910 75 ±0 Valid votes 1,464,910 99.52 +0.34 Invalid votes 7,107 0.48 −0.34 Votes cast / turnout 1,472,017 64.19 +4.69 Abstentions 821,152 35.81 −4.69 Registered voters 2,293,169 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PP PSdeG BNG % S % S % S La Coruña 49.0 13 24.6 6 19.6 5 Lugo 56.5 9 23.1 4 16.5 2 Orense 54.5 9 25.4 4 17.0 2 Pontevedra 53.0 12 22.0 5 18.4 4 Total 52.1 43 23.7 19 18.4 13 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 1 December 1993 Required majority → 38 out of 75 Abstentions Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography