Asturias (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Location of Asturias electoral district in Spain

Asturias is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. The total electorate in April 2008 was 982,230 and the largest municipalities were Gijón with 232,000, Oviedo with 179,000 and Avilés with 70,000. Siero (41,000), Langreo (39,000) and Mieres (38,000) were the only other municipalities with more than 20,000 voters.

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution ^[1] the boundaries must be the same as the province of Asturias and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Spain

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Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from Regional Assemblies if elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible.^[1]

Number of members

In the general elections of 1977, 1979 and 1982 Asturias returned 10 members. That figure was reduced to 9 members for the 1986 General Election. It lost a further seat for the 2004 election and now elects 8 members, although at the 2004 election its electorate was larger than Vizcaya which elected nine members.^[2]

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population.^[3] These laws are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General) The practical effect of this law has been to overrepresent smaller provinces at the expense of larger provinces like Asturias.

In 2008 for example Spain had 35,073,179 voters giving an average of 100,209 voters per deputy.^[4] In Asturias however the number of voters per deputy was 122,779^[5] one of the largest ratios. In contrast the ratio was 38,685 and 38,071 respectively in the smallest provinces of Soria^[6] and Teruel.^[7]

Summary of seats won 1977-2008

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Seats	10	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	8	8
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	4	4	6	5	4	4	4	3	4	4
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	4	4
People's Party (PP)	1	1	3	2	3	4	4	5	4	4
United Left (IU)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)				1	1

Seats shown for the People's Party include seats won by their predecessors, the Popular Alliance and the Popular Coalition before 1989. Seats shown for United Left include seats won by the Communist Party of Spain before 1986.

Vote share summary 1977-2008

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	31.7	37.3	52.1	46.0	40.6	39.3	39.9	37.0	43.4	46.9
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	30.9	33.0	4.9
People's Party (PP)	13.5	8.6	27.9	27.2	26.5	37.4	41.0	46.3	43.8	41.6
United Left (IU)	10.5	13.7	8.1	9.2	15.6	15.4	15.5	10.3	8.4	7.2
Popular Socialist Party (PSP)	7.1
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)			4.3	13.2	12.5	3.7	0.2	0.1	0.1

Results

2008 General Election

e • d Summary of the 9 March 2008 Congress of Deputies election results in Asturias.

Parties and alliances	Votes	%	Seats	Members elected
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español)	326,477	46.93	4
People's Party (Partido Popular)	289,305	41.58	4
United Left	49,936	7.18	0
Union, Progress and Democracy	9,485	1.36	0
Others	11,902	1.7	0

2004 General Election

e • d Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Asturias.

Parties and alliances	Votes	%	Seats	Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular)	307,977	43.77	4	Leopoldo Bertrand de la Riera, Alicia Castro, Isidro Fernández, José Sánchez
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español)	305,240	43.38	4	María Luisa Carcedo, Álvaro Cuesta, María Monteserín, Celestino Suárez
United Left	59,253	8.42	0
Greens	5,013	0.71	0
Others	11,719	3.72	0

source:^[8]

External links

• List of members by year
• Number of voters by Municipality in 2008

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Spanish Constitution
2. ^ Vizcaya 2004 electorate
3. ^ General features of Spanish electoral system
4. ^ 2008 Spanish election
5. ^ Asturias 2008 result
6. ^ Soria 2008 result
7. ^ Teruel 2008 result
8. ^ Interior ministry link to election results