A regional election was held in Catalonia on 29 May 1988 to elect the 3rd Parliament of the autonomous community. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview Under the 1979 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Catalonia 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 Catalonia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election was required to be called no later than 15 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament, with election day taking place within 60 days from the call.; . The previous election was held on 29 April 1984, which meant that the chamber's term would have expired on 29 April 1988. The election was required to be called no later than 14 April 1988, setting the latest possible date for election day on 13 June 1988.

Amendments in 1985 granted the regional president the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia at any given time and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process and that dissolution did not occur before one year after a previous one under this procedure. ( by ). 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 Catalonia was officially dissolved on 4 April 1988 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the Official Journal of the Government of Catalonia (DOGC), setting election day for 29 May..

Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Catalonia 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 Catalonia had a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 150 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 135. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. ( by ); . 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 85 Barcelona 18 Tarragona 17 Gerona 15 Lérida

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..

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..

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats CiU Jordi Pujol Catalan nationalismCentrism 46.8% PSC–PSOE Raimon Obiols Social democracy 30.1% AP Jorge Fernández Díaz ConservatismNational conservatism 7.7% IC Rafael Ribó Eco-socialismGreen politics 9.2% ERC Joan Hortalà Catalan nationalismLeft-wing nationalismSocial democracy 4.4% CDS Antoni Fernández Teixidó CentrismLiberalism colspan="2"

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; 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout IC Lead 1988 regional election 29 May 1988 59.4 45.7 29.8 – 4.1 5.3 3.8 7.8 15.9 PSC 29 May 1988???? – ????? Antena 3 29 May 1988???? – ????? Sigma Dos/COPE 29 May 1988 10,000??? – ????? Metra Seis/Cadena SER 29 May 1988 20,000??? – ????? Emopública/RTVE 29 May 1988 40,000??? – ????? Opina/TV3 29 May 1988 96,600? 44.0 30.0 – 5.0 5.0 4.0 9.0 14.0 Emopública/Diario 16 22 May 1988 1,000? 45.5 28.0 – 3.5 7.0 3.5 9.0 17.5 Iope–Etmar/El Periódico 22 May 1988 2,800? 50.2 27.9 – 3.4 5.3 4.2 6.3 22.3 Avui 22 May 1988???? – ????? Sofemasa/La Vanguardia 17–19 May 1988 1,659? 48.0 29.0 – 4.0 6.0 3.0 6.0 19.0 Demoscopia/El País 13–17 May 1988 1,600 65 49.3 27.7 – 3.1 6.1 3.6 5.4 21.6 Efe 13 May 1988?? 47.7 31.0 – 4.1 5.1 3.0 6.1 16.7 Demoscopia/El País 27–30 Apr 1988 1,600 65–67 47.4 28.2 – 4.2 6.4 4.2 5.8 19.2 Iope–Etmar/El Periódico 25–28 Apr 1988 1,100? 50.8 27.8 – 3.7 5.6 5.4 3.8 23.0 Gabise/Diario de Barcelona 24 Apr 1988 2,500? 46.5 30.2 – 4.3 5.2 2.8 6.6 16.3 Sofemasa/La Vanguardia 6–12 Apr 1988 1,000? 47.0 29.0 – 5.0 6.0 4.0 5.0 18.0 CIS 5–11 Apr 1988 2,900? 48.0 32.2 – 3.6 5.5 3.4 6.2 15.8 Gabise/Diario de Barcelona 20 Mar 1988 2,500? 53.3 29.4 – 3.8 4.7 2.0 4.8 23.9 Metra Seis/El Independiente 12 Mar 1988 1,800? 44.0 30.0 – 4.5 6.5 3.0 9.0 14.0 Iope–Etmar/El Periódico 28 Feb 1988 1,000? 46.2 29.8 – 5.7 5.7 5.7 4.5 16.4 Gabise/Diario de Barcelona 21 Feb 1988 2,425? 45.9 36.6 – 2.2 4.4 1.0 8.1 9.3 DYM/CIS 25–30 Jan 1988 2,900? 46.0 32.0 – ? 4.0? 7.0 14.0 CIS 3–10 Dec 1987 2,891? 48.0 32.0 – – –? – 16.0 1987 EP election 10 Jun 1987 67.9 27.8 36.8 – 3.7 11.2 5.6 5.4 9.0 1986 general election 22 Jun 1986 68.9 32.0 41.0 11.4 2.7 4.1 3.9 9.0 Sofemasa/La Vanguardia 16 Nov–1 Dec 1985 980? 43.0 33.6 3.1 4.9 – 1.3 – 9.4 1984 regional election 29 Apr 1984 64.4 46.8 30.1 7.7 5.6 4.4 – – 16.7

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 29 May 1988 Parliament of Catalonia election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Convergence and Union (CiU) 1,232,514 45.72 −1.08 69 −3 Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE)1 802,828 29.78 −0.36 42 +1 Initiative for Catalonia (IC)2 209,211 7.76 −1.46 9 +3 People's Alliance (AP)3 143,241 5.31 −2.39 6 −5 Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 111,647 4.14 −0.27 6 +1 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 103,351 3.83 New 3 +3 Green Alternative–Ecologist Movement of Catalonia (AV–MEC) 16,346 0.61 New 0 ±0 The Ecologist Greens (EVE) 8,730 0.32 New 0 ±0 The Greens (EV) 8,105 0.30 New 0 ±0 Ecologist Party of Catalonia–VERDE (PEC–VERDE) 5,927 0.22 −0.08 0 ±0 Andalusian Party of Catalonia (PAC) 5,815 0.22 New 0 ±0 Workers' Socialist Party (PST) 5,794 0.21 +0.02 0 ±0 Social Democratic Party of Catalonia (PSDC) 5,156 0.19 −0.05 0 ±0 Spanish Juntas (JJEE) 4,524 0.17 New 0 ±0 Communist Unification of Spain (UCE) 3,358 0.12 New 0 ±0 Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE) 2,727 0.10 +0.01 0 ±0 Communist Workers' League (LOC) 2,228 0.08 New 0 ±0 Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS) 2,202 0.08 New 0 ±0 Humanist Party of Catalonia (PHC) 2,195 0.08 New 0 ±0 Alliance for the Republic (AxR)4 1,119 0.04 −0.08 0 ±0 Republican Popular Unity (UPR)5 1,066 0.04 −0.02 0 ±0 Centrist Unity–Democratic Spanish Party (PED) 905 0.03 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 16,946 0.63 +0.13 Total 2,695,935 135 ±0 Valid votes 2,695,935 99.49 +0.01 Invalid votes 13,750 0.51 −0.01 Votes cast / turnout 2,709,685 59.37 −4.99 Abstentions 1,854,704 40.63 +4.99 Registered voters 4,564,389 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency CiU PSC IC AP ERC CDS % S % S % S % S % S % S Barcelona 43.6 39 31.4 28 8.8 8 5.2 4 3.7 3 3.8 3 Gerona 56.3 11 23.6 5 3.9 − 3.7 − 5.5 1 3.2 − Lérida 53.8 9 23.1 4 3.6 − 6.2 1 5.9 1 4.3 − Tarragona 47.6 10 27.0 5 5.5 1 7.1 1 5.3 1 4.0 − Total 45.7 69 29.8 42 7.8 9 5.3 6 4.1 6 3.8 3 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 22 June 1988 Required majority → 68 out of 135 Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography