A regional election was held in Extremadura on 26 May 1991 to elect the 3rd Assembly of the autonomous community. All 65 seats in the Assembly 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 largest absolute majority a party would achieve in a regional election in the history of Extremadura, with 39 out of 65 seats (60% of the seats) and slightly above 54% of the vote share. The newly founded People's Party, successor of the late People's Alliance, recovered from AP 1987 results and gained two seats. The Democratic and Social Centre lost seats and votes, falling behind United Left (IU), which gained support and finished in third place for the first time in a regional election. Meanwhile, the regionalist United Extremadura (EU) lost more than half its support and was left out from the Assembly, losing all its seats.

As a result of the election, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra was elected for a third consecutive term in office.

Overview Under the 1983 Statute of Autonomy, the Assembly of Extremadura 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 Assembly of Extremadura expired four years after the date of its previous ordinary 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 Extremadura (DOE).; ( 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 Assembly of Extremadura could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament, except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot. In such a case, the Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called, with elected lawmakers serving the remainder of its original four-year term.; .

The election to the Assembly of Extremadura was officially called on 2 April 1991 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOE, setting election day for 26 May..

Electoral system Voting for the Assembly was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Extremadura 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 Assembly of Extremadura had a maximum of 65 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at that number. All were elected in two multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres, each of which was assigned an initial minimum of 20 seats and the remaining 25 distributed in proportion to population—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. Alternatively, parties could also enter the seat distribution as long as they ran candidates in both constituencies and reached five percent regionally.; .

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

Seats Constituencies 35 Badajoz 30 Cáceres

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 1991 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 34 34 People's Parliamentary Group PP 17 17 CDS Parliamentary Group CDS 8 8 Mixed Parliamentary Group EU 2 6 IU 2 PREx 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 two percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list.; suppl. .

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

Candidacy Parties andalliances Candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats PSOE Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra Social democracy 49.2% PP Vicente Sánchez Cuadrado ConservatismChristian democracy 25.4% CDS Tomás Martín Tamayo CentrismLiberalism 12.4% EU Pedro Cañada RegionalismConservatism 5.8% IU Manuel Pareja SocialismCommunism 5.4%

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; 33 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Assembly of Extremadura.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout Lead 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 70.8 54.2 5.7 2.5 7.1 26.8 27.4 Sigma Dos/El Mundo 18 May 1991?? 53.4 5.3 – 8.8 25.4 28.0 Metra Seis/El Independiente 12 May 1991?? 47.0 6.7 8.7 5.8 25.5 21.5 Demoscopia/El País 4–7 May 1991 400? 53.3 5.3 6.1 8.6 25.0 28.3 1989 general election 29 Oct 1989 75.6 53.9 9.5 1.8 6.9 25.0 28.9 1989 EP election 15 Jun 1989 60.4 54.8 8.6 2.3 4.9 21.8 33.0 1987 regional election 10 Jun 1987 74.4 49.2 24.2 12.4 5.8 5.4 – 25.0

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Lead 1991 regional election 26 May 1991 38.0 4.0 1.7 5.0 18.8 29.0 19.2 ICP–Research/Diario 16 19 May 1991? 48.5 3.3 – 3.0 22.6 – – 25.9 CIS 13–25 Mar 1991 1,058 49.0 3.0 3.0 5.0 10.0 26.0 4.0 39.0 CIS 4–17 Feb 1991 1,576 49.5 2.7 4.0 4.8 10.5 22.6 5.2 39.0 CIS 15–29 Dec 1990 1,721 47.8 2.3 3.4 7.3 12.0 18.1 7.9 35.8 CIS 24 May–2 Jun 1990 1,000 42.1 3.0 3.4 7.5 12.5 25.5 4.8 29.6 1989 general election 29 Oct 1989 40.5 7.2 1.3 5.2 18.8 24.3 21.7 CIS 20–29 Jul 1989 1,000 44.9 7.3 3.6 4.2 8.3 22.8 8.0 36.6 1989 EP election 15 Jun 1989 32.8 5.2 1.4 2.9 13.0 39.5 19.8 CIS 18–28 Dec 1988 999 37.2 9.6 6.5 5.9 3.9 – 27.5 8.7 27.6 1987 regional election 10 Jun 1987 36.2 17.8 9.1 4.3 4.0 – 25.6 18.4

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 13–25 Mar 1991 1,058 54.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 11.0 17.0 5.0 43.0 CIS 4–17 Feb 1991 1,576 51.0 2.7 3.7 5.5 11.6 19.6 5.7 39.4

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 26 May 1991 Assembly of Extremadura election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 314,384 54.16 +4.98 39 +5 People's Party (PP)1 155,485 26.78 +1.34 19 +2 United Left (IU) 41,290 7.11 +1.70 4 +2 Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 33,291 5.73 −6.62 3 −5 United Extremadura (EU) 14,503 2.50 −3.31 0 −4 Extremaduran Regionalist Party (PREx) 8,660 1.49 New 0 ±0 The Greens (LV) 6,011 1.04 New 0 ±0 Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) 2,379 0.41 New 0 ±0 Blank ballots 4,508 0.78 −0.02 Total 580,511 65 ±0 Valid votes 580,511 99.34 +0.33 Invalid votes 3,867 0.66 −0.33 Votes cast / turnout 584,378 70.85 −3.54 Abstentions 240,488 29.15 +3.54 Registered voters 824,866 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency PSOE PP IU CDS % S % S % S % S Badajoz 56.3 21 25.1 9 8.7 3 5.9 2 Cáceres 50.9 18 29.3 10 4.8 1 5.5 1 Total 54.2 39 26.8 19 7.1 4 5.7 3 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 2 July 1991 Required majority → 33 out of 65 Abstentions Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography