A regional election was held in Aragon on 13 June 1999 to elect the 5th of the autonomous community. All 67 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, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.

The election saw increases in both vote share and seats for the People's Party (PP), which had formed the Government of Aragon since 1995, and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The Aragonese Party (PAR) continued its long-term decline from its peak at the 1987 election while on the left, Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) gained most of United Left (IU) former support, which lost 4 of its 5 seats.

Despite winning the election and gaining one seat from 1995, the PP went into opposition as incumbent President of Aragon Santiago Lanzuela was unable to gather the support from his former coalition partner the PAR. Instead, the PAR supported Socialist Marcelino Iglesias as new regional president, entering into a coalition administration with the PSOE.

Overview Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the Cortes of Aragon 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 of Aragon 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, but a 1998 amendment allowed for regional elections held in May 1995 to be held concurrently with European Parliament elections, provided that they were scheduled for within a four month-timespan. 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 Gazette of Aragon (BOA).; ( by ). The previous election was held on 28 May 1995, setting the date for election day concurrently with that year's European Parliament election on 13 June 1999.

The regional president had the prerogative to dissolve the of Aragon 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. ( by ); . In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the 's reconvening, the chamber 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 of Aragon was officially called on 20 April 1999 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOA, setting election day for 13 June and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 7 July..

Electoral system Voting for the was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Aragon 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 of Aragon had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 75 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 67. All were elected in three multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 13 seats and the remaining 28 distributed in proportion to population (with the seat-to-population ratio in the most populated province not exceeding 2.75 times that of the least populated one)—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.; . 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 constituency was entitled the following seats:.

Seats Constituencies 34 Zaragoza 18 Huesca 15 Teruel

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 1999 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total People's Parliamentary Group in the Cortes of Aragon PP 27 27 Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 19 19 Aragonese Party Parliamentary Group PAR 14 14 United Left of Aragon Parliamentary Group IU 5 5 Mixed Parliamentary Group CHA 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 PP Santiago Lanzuela ConservatismChristian democracy 37.5% PSOE Marcelino Iglesias Social democracy 25.7% PAR José María Mur RegionalismCentrism 20.4% IU Jesús Lacasa SocialismCommunism 9.2% CHA Chesús Bernal Aragonese nationalismEco-socialism 4.8%

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; 34 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Cortes of Aragon.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 64.6 38.2 30.8 13.3 3.9 11.0 7.4 Eco Consulting/ABC 24 May–2 Jun 1999?? 36.7 26.0 19.5 7.3 8.0 10.7 Demoscopia/El País 26 May–1 Jun 1999? 70 38.0 29.2 18.0 6.0 8.0 8.8 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 20–26 May 1999 800? 40.4 30.4 13.7 8.1 5.1 10.0 CIS 3–20 May 1999 1,334 70.8 38.3 24.1 19.7 7.8 8.2 14.2 1996 general election 3 Mar 1996 77.5 47.9 34.6 9.1 6.4 13.3 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 71.1 37.5 25.7 20.4 9.2 4.8 11.8

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 24.9 20.0 8.6 2.5 7.2 35.0 4.9 CIS 3–20 May 1999 1,334 24.5 15.5 8.3 3.1 5.0 33.7 8.6 9.0 1996 general election 3 Mar 1996 37.2 26.8 7.1 5.0 22.1 10.4 1995 regional election 28 May 1995 26.5 18.0 14.4 6.5 3.4 28.4 8.5

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 3–20 May 1999 1,334 29.1 21.2 9.0 4.9 5.4 0.7 29.7 7.9

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 3–20 May 1999 1,334 59.5 3.8 3.7 0.3 0.1 0.0 32.6 55.7

Preferred President The table below lists opinion polling on leader preferences to become president of the Government of Aragon.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 3–20 May 1999 1,334 29.5 9.5 5.3 1.3 5.2 1.4 47.8 20.0

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 13 June 1999 Cortes of Aragon election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− People's Party (PP) 249,458 38.21 +0.71 28 +1 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 201,117 30.81 +5.09 23 +4 Aragonese Party (PAR) 86,519 13.25 −7.18 10 −4 Aragonese Union (CHA) 72,101 11.04 +6.19 5 +3 United Left of Aragon (IU) 25,040 3.86 −5.36 1 −4 SOS Nature (SOS) 3,621 0.55 +0.42 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 982 0.15 New 0 ±0 Upper Aragonese Territory Regenerationist Group (ARTA) 373 0.06 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 13,599 2.08 +0.50 Total 652,810 67 ±0 Valid votes 652,810 99.29 −0.11 Invalid votes 4,654 0.71 +0.11 Votes cast / turnout 657,464 64.60 −6.52 Abstentions 360,271 35.40 +6.52 Registered voters 1,017,735 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PP PSOE PAR CHA IU % S % S % S % S % S Huesca 33.8 7 34.2 7 16.1 3 9.0 1 3.4 − Teruel 40.2 7 31.6 5 17.7 3 4.3 − 4.1 − Zaragoza 39.0 14 29.8 11 11.7 4 12.8 4 3.9 1 Total 38.2 28 30.8 23 13.3 10 11.0 5 3.9 1 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 29 July 1999 Required majority → 34 out of 67 Absentees Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography