A regional election was held in Extremadura on 28 May 1995 to elect the 4th Assembly of the autonomous community. All 65 seats in the Assembly 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) won the election, but suffered a spectacular fall in both vote share and seats, losing the absolute majority it had maintained since 1983. On the other hand, the People's Party (PP) made great gains, winning the same 8 seats lost by the PSOE and nearing 40% of the vote. United Left (IU) obtained its best historical result to date in a regional election, with 6 out of 65 seats. The Extremaduran Coalition, an alliance of United Extremadura (EU) and the Extremaduran Regionalist Party (PREx), both of which failed to enter the Assembly in the 1991 election, entered the Assembly with 1 seat.

The Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), which had already been reduced to 3 seats in 1991, did not even stand in the 1995 election, thus losing all of its seats.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was able to be re-elected for a fourth term in office thanks to the abstention of IU. Both PP and IU together commanded an absolute majority of seats and could potentially block the PSOE in the Assembly, as had happened in Andalusia.

Overview Under the 1983 Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly of Extremadura 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 Assembly of Extremadura 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 Journal of Extremadura (DOE).; ( by ). The previous election was held on 26 May 1991, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 28 May 1995.

The Assembly of Extremadura could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament, except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot. In such a case, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term.; .

The election to the Assembly of Extremadura was officially called on 4 April 1995 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOE, setting election day for 28 May..

Electoral system Voting for the Assembly was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Extremadura 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 Assembly of Extremadura had a maximum of 65 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at that number. All were elected in two multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 25 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. Alternatively, parties could also enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both constituencies and reached five percent regionally.; .

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

Seats Constituencies 35 Badajoz 30 Cáceres

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 1995 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 39 39 People's Parliamentary Group PP 19 19 Mixed Parliamentary Group IU 4 7 CDS 3

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 two percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list.; suppl. .

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Social democracy 54.2% PP Juan Ignacio Barrero ConservatismChristian democracy 26.8% IU–LV–CE Ricardo Sosa SocialismCommunism 8.1% CEx Pedro Cañada Regionalism 4.0% Not contesting CDS Tomás Martín Tamayo CentrismLiberalism 5.7%

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; 33 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Assembly of Extremadura.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout CEx Lead 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 78.3 43.9 39.5 10.5 – 3.8 4.4 Eco Consulting/RTVE 28 May 1995?? 42.3 41.2 10.9 – – 1.1 Sigma Dos/COPE 28 May 1995?? 39.7 42.2 12.0 – – 2.5 Vox Pública–ODEC/Antena 3 28 May 1995????? – – Tie CEPS/Hoy 21 May 1995????? –?? Demoscopia/El País 10–15 May 1995 600? 42.8 40.5 10.9 – 2.1 2.3 CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 1,198 70.8 45.6 41.3 9.3 – 2.3 4.3 Sigma Dos/PP 20–30 Jan 1995 1,000? 39.7 40.4 13.8 – 2.9 0.7 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 66.2 45.0 40.2 10.7 0.7 1.0 4.8 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 80.5 51.5 35.8 7.8 2.0 1.0 15.7 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 70.8 54.2 26.8 7.1 5.7 2.5 27.4

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size CEx Lead 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 34.0 30.6 8.2 – 3.0 21.1 3.4 CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 1,198 41.0 25.3 5.2 0.3 1.9 20.6 4.0 15.7 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 1,196 35.2 21.3 10.7 0.9 2.7 22.2 4.6 13.9 1994 EP election 12 Jun 1994 29.8 26.8 7.1 0.5 0.6 33.4 3.0 1993 general election 6 Jun 1993 41.4 28.9 6.3 1.6 0.8 19.1 12.5 CIS 13–21 Nov 1992 1,058 31.5 12.4 6.0 1.8 – 38.4 7.1 19.1 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 38.0 18.8 5.0 4.0 1.7 29.0 19.2

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 Apr–10 May 1995 1,198 46.1 26.4 0.8 26.8 19.7 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 1,196 45.9 29.3 – 24.8 16.6

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 Apr–10 May 1995 1,198 43.9 24.0 0.0 32.1 19.9 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 1,196 42.2 27.8 – 30.0 14.4

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 24 Apr–10 May 1995 1,198 47.5 23.9 3.0 25.6 23.6 CIS 2–17 Mar 1995 1,196 44.6 22.0 5.6 27.9 22.6

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Assembly of Extremadura election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 289,149 43.94 −10.22 31 −8 People's Party (PP) 259,703 39.46 +12.68 27 +8 United Left–The Greens–Commitment to Extremadura (IU–LV–CE)1 69,387 10.54 +2.39 6 +2 Extremaduran Coalition (CEx)2 25,168 3.82 −0.17 1 +1 Independent Socialists of Extremadura (SIEx) 7,722 1.17 New 0 ±0 Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) 1,136 0.17 −0.24 0 ±0 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) n/a n/a −5.73 0 −3 Blank ballots 5,804 0.88 +0.10 Total 658,069 65 ±0 Valid votes 658,069 99.34 ±0.00 Invalid votes 4,375 0.66 ±0.00 Votes cast / turnout 662,444 78.33 +7.48 Abstentions 183,284 21.67 −7.48 Registered voters 845,728 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE PP IU–LV CEx % S % S % S % S Badajoz 44.4 17 38.5 14 12.1 4 2.5 − Cáceres 43.2 14 41.0 13 8.1 2 5.9 1 Total 43.9 31 39.5 27 10.5 6 3.8 1 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 12 July 1995 14 July 1995 Required majority → 33 out of 65 Simple Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography