A regional election was held in Extremadura on 25 May 2003 to elect the 6th 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), which in this election ran in coalition with the Extremaduran Coalition, enlarged its absolute majority from 34 to 36 seats, at the cost of the opposition People's Party (PP), which fell to 26 and lost ground for the first time since the 1987 election. United Left (IU), which formed a coalition with the Independent Socialists of Extremadura (SIEx), maintained its three seats but was unable to make gains.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was elected for his sixth and last term in office as President of the Regional Government of Extremadura, as he would announce in September 2006 he would not run for re-election in 2007.

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 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 Assembly of Extremadura 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.; . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Assembly 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 Assembly of Extremadura was officially called on 1 April 2003 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOE, setting election day for 25 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 2003 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 34 34 People's Parliamentary Group PP 28 28 Mixed Parliamentary Group IU 3 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–p Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Social democracy 49.6% PP Carlos Floriano ConservatismChristian democracy 40.0% IU–SIEx Manuel Cañada SocialismCommunism 7.0%

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 Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 75.6 51.7 38.7 6.3 1.8 13.0 Sigma Dos/Antena 3 25 May 2003????? – ? Ipsos–Eco/RTVE 25 May 2003????? – ? CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,238 74.9 51.5 39.2 7.3 – 0.1 12.3 Vox Pública/El Periódico 23 Apr 2003 805? 50.0–51.0 37.5–38.5 5.0–6.0 1.0–2.0 – 12.5 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 486 79.3 50.3 39.6 6.7 – – 10.7 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 75.4 44.7 47.3 4.7 0.7 0.4 2.6 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 73.4 48.5 40.0 6.1 1.7 1.2 8.5

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 39.4 29.6 4.8 23.0 9.8 CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,238 40.8 18.9 4.4 30.6 3.8 21.9 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 486 43.2 20.2 3.7 23.8 7.2 23.0 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 34.0 36.1 3.6 23.3 2.6 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 36.4 30.2 4.6 24.4 6.2

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 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,238 48.5 22.2 5.6 1.2 22.5 26.3

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 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,238 69.6 6.9 0.3 0.0 23.2 62.7

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 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,238 51.7 19.1 5.3 1.2 22.8 32.6

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Assembly of Extremadura election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party–Progressives (PSOE–p)1 341,522 51.66 +2.03 36 +2 People's Party (PP) 255,808 38.70 −1.31 26 −2 United Left–Independent Socialists of Extremadura (IU–SIEx)2 41,448 6.27 −0.74 3 ±0 United Extremadura (EU) 12,171 1.84 +0.17 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 1,082 0.16 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 9,033 1.37 +0.22 Total 661,064 65 ±0 Valid votes 661,064 99.19 −0.19 Invalid votes 5,404 0.81 +0.19 Votes cast / turnout 666,468 75.63 +2.19 Abstentions 214,760 24.37 −2.19 Registered voters 881,228 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE–p PP IU–SIEx % S % S % S Badajoz 53.5 20 37.2 13 6.9 2 Cáceres 48.8 16 41.0 13 5.3 1 Total 51.7 36 38.7 26 6.3 3 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 23 June 2003 Required majority → 33 out of 65 Abstentions Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography