A regional election was held in the Valencian Community on 8 May 1983 to elect the 1st of the autonomous community. All 89 seats in the 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 with an absolute majority of 51 out of 89 seats and almost one million votes (51.4% of the vote). The People's Coalition, composed in the Valencian Community by the People's Alliance (AP), the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the Liberal Union and the Valencian Union (UV), became the second political force and the main opposition party in the with 32 seats. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) managed to surpass the 5% regional threshold and entered the with 6 seats, seeing a slight recovery from its results in the October 1982 general election.

As a result of the election, regional PSOE leader Joan Lerma became the first democratically elected president of the Valencian Government.

Overview Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the were the unicameral legislature of the Valencian 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 (which were those used in the 1977 general election).; .

Date The Council of the Valencian Country, in agreement with the Government of Spain and with the prior favorable vote of the during their transitional period, was required to call an election to the within from 1 February to 31 May 1983..

The could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament..

The were officially dissolved on 10 March 1983 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOGV, setting election day for 8 May and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 7 June..

Electoral system Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Valencian Community and with full political rights.} ( by ).

The had 89 seats in their first election. All members were elected in three multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) regionally. ( by ); .

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

Seats Constituencies 35 Valencia 29 Alicante 25 Castellón

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 fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one permille—and, in any case, 500 signatures—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 PSOE Joan Lerma Social democracy AP–PDP–UL–UV Manuel Giner ConservatismChristian democracy PCE–PCPV José Galán Eurocommunism

The electoral disaster of the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) in the October 1982 general election and the outcome of its extraordinary congress held in December, in which the party's leadership chose to transform the UCD into a christian democratic political force, brought the party to a process of virtual disintegration as many of its remaining members either switched party allegiances, split into new, independent candidacies or left politics altogether. Subsequent attempts to seek electoral allies ahead of the incoming 1983 local and regional elections, mainly the conservative People's Alliance (AP) and the christian democratic People's Democratic Party (PDP), had limited success due to concerns from both AP and UCD over such alliance policy: AP strongly rejected any agreement that implied any sort of global coalition with UCD due to the party's ongoing decomposition, and prospects about a possible PDP–UCD merger did not come into fruition because of the latter's reluctance to dilute its brand within another party. By the time the UCD's executive had voted for the liquidation of the party's mounting debts and its subsequent dissolution on 18 February 1983, electoral alliances with the AP–PDP coalition had only been agreed in some provinces of the Basque Country and Galicia.

Together with AP, the PDP had agreed to maintain their general election alliance—now rebranded as the People's Coalition—for the May local and regional elections, with the inclusion of the Liberal Union (UL), a political party created in January 1983 out of independents from the AP–PDP coalition in an attempt to appeal to former UCD liberal voters. The Coalition had seen its numbers soar from late February as a result of many former members from the UCD's christian democratic wing joining the PDP.

Opinion polls The table below lists voting intention estimates 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. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 45 seats were required for an absolute majority in the .

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 1983 regional election 8 May 1983 72.7 51.4 31.9 7.5 1.9 19.5 Sofemasa/El País 23–26 Apr 1983???? – –? 1982 general election 28 Oct 1982 84.0 53.1 29.1 4.6 2.5 24.0

Results Overall + Summary of the 8 May 1983 election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 982,567 51.41 n/a 51 n/a People's Coalition–Valencian Union (AP–PDP–UL–UV) 609,519 31.89 n/a 32 n/a Communist Party of the Valencian Country (PCE–PCPV) 142,570 7.46 n/a 6 n/a Valencian People's Union (UPV) 58,712 3.07 n/a 0 n/a Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 36,015 1.88 n/a 0 n/a Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) 29,788 1.56 n/a 0 n/a Valencian Independent Organization (OIV) 12,585 0.66 n/a 0 n/a Workers' Socialist Party (PST) 10,156 0.53 n/a 0 n/a Valencian Nationalist Left (ENV–URV) 7,623 0.40 n/a 0 n/a Spanish Communist Workers' Party (PCOE) 5,945 0.31 n/a 0 n/a Popular Struggle Coalition (CLP) 2,586 0.14 n/a 0 n/a Blank ballots 13,180 0.69 n/a Total 1,911,246 89 n/a Valid votes 1,911,246 98.97 n/a Invalid votes 19,896 1.03 n/a Votes cast / turnout 1,931,142 72.74 n/a Abstentions 723,825 27.26 n/a Registered voters 2,654,967 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE CP–UV PCE–PV % S % S % S Alicante 54.7 17 31.1 10 6.6 2 Castellón 49.1 14 34.1 10 5.6 1 Valencia 50.2 20 31.8 12 8.3 3 Total 51.4 51 31.9 32 7.5 6 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Candidate Ballot → 6 June 1983 Required majority → 45 out of 89 Joan Lerma (PSOE) Absentees José Galán (PCPV) Abstentions Absentees Sources

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography