A regional election was held in the Valencian Community on 26 May 1991 to elect the 3rd 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.

For the third and final time to date, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won a regional election in the Valencian Community, regaining the overall majority of seats it had lost in the 1987 election. This was the last time the PSOE was able to access the Valencian government on its own, and the last until the 2015 election in which it went on to form the regional government of the Valencian Community. The main right of centre parties, both the newly founded People's Party (PP) (a merger of the People's Alliance (AP) and other right-wing parties) and the regionalist Valencian Union (UV), came out reinforced from the election, mainly at the cost of the declining CDS. However, they were left unable to command an overall majority of seats, unlike what happened in the city of Valencia in the same year's election, in which a post-election agreement between both parties managed to oust the PSOE from the city's government and elect 1987 AP regional candidate Rita Barberá as city mayor.

As in other Spanish communities, the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) saw a substantial drop in its vote share, causing it to fall below the 5% threshold and lose all its 10 seats. The party's poor results across Spain led to the resignation of party leader and former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and to the eventual demise of the CDS as a relevant actor in Spanish politics. United Left (EU) maintained the results obtained by the IU–UPV alliance in the 1987 election. Valencian People's Unity (UPV) had broken its alliance with IU in 1988 and was left out of the as a result, being unable to surpass the 5% regional threshold to win seats.

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..

Date The term of the expired four years after the date of their previous election, with amendments earlier in 1991 fixing election day for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The election decree was required to be issued between 54 and 60 days before the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official Journal of the Valencian Government (DOGV).; ; ( by ). The previous election was held on 10 June 1987, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 26 May 1991.

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

The were officially dissolved on 2 April 1991 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOGV, setting election day for 26 May and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 18 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, provided that they had not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated.; ( by ).

The had a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 100 seats, with the electoral law fixing its size at 89. All were elected in three multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 29 distributed in proportion to population (with the seat-to-population ratio in any given province not exceeding three times that of any other)—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) regionally.; .

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

Seats Constituencies 37 Valencia 30 Alicante 22 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. ( by ).

Outgoing parliament The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.

+ Parliamentary composition in April 1991 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 42 42 People's Parliamentary Group PP 22 22 CDS Parliamentary Group CDS 11 11 Valencian Union Parliamentary Group UV 8 8 United Left Parliamentary Group EU 4 4 Mixed Group UPV 2 2

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. ( by ).

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Leading candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Joan Lerma Social democracy 41.3% PP Pedro Agramunt ConservatismChristian democracy 24.7% CDS Alejandro Font de Mora CentrismLiberalism 11.2% UV Héctor Villalba BlaverismConservatism 9.1% EU Albert Taberner SocialismCommunism 7.9% UPV Pere Mayor Valencian nationalismSocialism

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; 45 seats were required for an absolute majority in the .

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout LV Lead 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 69.2 42.8 3.8 10.4 7.5 3.7 1.8 27.8 15.0 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 18 May 1991?? 40.0 5.1 10.9 9.1 3.2 3.4 23.0 17.0 Metra Seis/El Independiente 12 May 1991?? 40.4 7.0 10.2 7.8 3.1 1.0 23.6 16.8 Demoscopia/El País 4–7 May 1991 650? 39.4 4.5 10.8 8.3 – 3.8 28.3 11.1 1989 general election 29 Oct 1989 74.8 41.5 7.8 6.8 9.1 1.9 1.7 27.0 14.5 1989 EP election 15 Jun 1989 61.7 42.7 7.5 6.8 5.9 2.6 1.0 22.7 20.0 1987 regional election 10 Jun 1987 74.5 41.3 23.7 11.2 9.1 7.9 1.1 1.0 – 17.6

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 26 May 1991 election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 860,429 42.85 +1.57 45 +3 People's Party (PP)1 558,617 27.82 +3.11 31 +6 Valencian Union (UV) 208,126 10.36 +1.22 7 +1 United Left of the Valencian Country (EU)2 151,242 7.53 n/a 6 +2 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 76,433 3.81 −7.43 0 −10 Valencian People's Union (UPV)2 73,813 3.68 n/a 0 −2 The Greens (LV) 35,375 1.76 +0.65 0 ±0 The Greens of Alicante–Green Union (LVA–UVE) 5,569 0.28 New 0 ±0 Socialist Democracy (DS) 5,207 0.26 New 0 ±0 Cantonalist Party of the Alicantine Country (Alicantón) 4,119 0.21 New 0 ±0 Left Platform (PCE (m–l)–CRPE)3 2,758 0.14 −0.02 0 ±0 Valencian Nationalist Union (UNV)4 2,248 0.11 −0.10 0 ±0 National Front (FN) 2,184 0.11 New 0 ±0 Alliance for the Republic (AxR)5 1,383 0.07 −0.02 0 ±0 Blank ballots 20,606 1.03 −0.04 Total 2,008,109 89 ±0 Valid votes 2,008,109 99.44 +0.56 Invalid votes 11,302 0.56 −0.56 Votes cast / turnout 2,019,411 69.24 −5.21 Abstentions 897,054 30.76 +5.21 Registered voters 2,916,465 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE PP UV EU % S % S % S % S Alicante 44.6 16 33.1 12 1.7 − 7.3 2 Castellón 41.4 11 35.3 9 5.2 1 4.8 1 Valencia 42.2 18 23.3 10 16.3 6 8.3 3 Total 42.8 45 27.8 31 10.4 7 7.5 6 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Candidate Ballot → 9 July 1991 Required majority → 45 out of 89 Joan Lerma (PSOE) Abstentions Absentees Pedro Agramunt (PP) Abstentions Absentees Héctor Villalba (UV) Abstentions Absentees Albert Taberner (EU) Abstentions Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

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