A regional election was held in the Canary Islands on 25 May 2003 to elect the 6th Parliament of the autonomous community. All 60 seats in the Parliament were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.

Overview Under the 1982 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of the Canary Islands 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 the Canary Islands 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. 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 the Canaries (BOC).; ( by ). The previous election was held on 13 June 1999, setting the date for election day on the fourth Sunday of May four years later, which was 25 May 2003.

The Parliament of the Canary Islands 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 Parliament 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 Parliament of the Canary Islands was officially called on 1 April 2003 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOC, setting election day for 25 May..

Electoral system Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the Canary Islands 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 the Canary Islands had a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 70 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 60. All were elected in seven multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the islands of El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzarote and Tenerife, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a 30 percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency or six percent regionally..

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

Seats Constituencies 15 Gran Canaria, Tenerife 8 La Palma, Lanzarote 7 Fuerteventura 4 La Gomera 3 El Hierro

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 2003 Groups Parties Legislators Seats Total Canarian Coalition Parliamentary Group (CC) AIC 16 24 ICAN 3 AM 3 CCN 2 Canarian Socialist Parliamentary Group PSOE 18 18 People's Parliamentary Group PP 14 14 Mixed Parliamentary Group AHI 2 2 Non-Inscrits INDEP 1 1

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 Candidate Ideology Previous result Vote % Seats CC Adán Martín RegionalismCanarian nationalismCentrism 37.3% PSOE Juan Carlos Alemán Social democracy 24.0% PP José Manuel Soria ConservatismChristian democracy 27.1% FNC Lorenzo Olarte Canarian nationalism 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; 31 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of the Canary Islands.

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Turnout FNC Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 64.6 32.9 30.6 25.4 4.8 1.3 2.3 CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,778 73.7 41.1 22.1 27.0 0.6 3.6 0.4 14.1 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 499 74.2 33.8 32.5 21.4 – 2.2 – 1.3 Regional Government 28 Nov–23 Dec 2001 3,522? 36.7 27.4 27.9 1.1 2.7 0.2 8.8 Regional Government 15 May–20 Jun 2001 3,551? 37.5 27.6 25.1 1.2 2.8 0.2 9.9 Regional Government 27 Nov–30 Dec 2000 3,641? 35.6 28.4 26.2 – – 0.3 7.2 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 60.7 29.6 41.8 22.2 1.2 2.4 12.2 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 60.8 36.9 27.1 24.0 4.8 2.7 0.3 9.8

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size FNC Lead 2003 regional election 25 May 2003 21.5 20.4 16.8 3.1 0.9 33.6 1.1 CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,778 22.5 12.3 17.6 0.4 2.1 0.3 33.5 7.2 4.9 CIS 9 Sep–9 Oct 2002 499 22.2 21.0 12.6 – 1.2 – 24.8 12.4 1.2 Regional Government 28 Nov–23 Dec 2001 3,522 17.2 18.2 16.7 0.7 2.8 0.1 26.1 11.1 1.0 Regional Government 15 May–20 Jun 2001 3,551 18.1 20.0 15.2 0.9 2.9 0.1 26.9 10.5 1.9 Regional Government 27 Nov–30 Dec 2000 3,641 17.9 21.9 14.7 0.8 2.8 0.1 23.7 9.9 4.0 Regional Government 10 May–20 Jun 2000 3,580 25.8 27.7 14.0 0.8 2.3 0.0 25.1 1.3 1.9 2000 general election 12 Mar 2000 18.0 25.7 13.6 0.8 1.5 38.4 7.7 1999 regional election 13 Jun 1999 22.8 16.7 14.8 2.9 1.6 0.2 38.2 6.1

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 FNC Other/None Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,778 27.9 16.5 22.0 0.3 3.5 0.3 2.0 27.6 5.9

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 FNC Other/None Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,778 38.2 14.0 11.8 0.1 0.4 0.0 0.1 35.5 24.2

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

Polling firm/Commissioner Fieldwork date Sample size Other/None/Notcare Lead CIS 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 1,778 20.3 16.6 14.5 3.8 1.4 4.6 38.8 3.7

Results Overall + ← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Parliament of the Canary Islands election results → Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Total +/− Canarian Coalition (CC)1 304,413 32.90 −4.36 23 −3 People's Party (PP) 283,186 30.61 +3.48 17 +2 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 235,234 25.42 +1.39 17 −2 Canarian Nationalist Federation (FNC) 44,703 4.83 +0.02 3 +3 The Greens of the Canaries (Verdes) 18,340 1.98 +0.52 0 ±0 Canarian United Left (IUC) 12,128 1.31 −1.43 0 ±0 Canarian Popular Alternative (APCa) 6,737 0.73 New 0 ±0 25 May Citizens' Alternative (AC25M) 2,719 0.29 New 0 ±0 Communist Party of the Canarian People (PCPC) 1,776 0.19 New 0 ±0 Humanist Party (PH) 1,322 0.14 −0.02 0 ±0 Lanzarote Assembly–PdA–PCL (AC–PdA–PCL) 964 0.10 New 0 ±0 Tenerife Union (UTI) 571 0.06 New 0 ±0 Pensionist Assembly of the Canaries (TPC) 449 0.05 −0.03 0 ±0 Party of The People (LG) 448 0.05 New 0 ±0 National Democracy (DN) 409 0.04 New 0 ±0 Centrist Union (UC) 43 0.00 −0.53 0 ±0 Blank ballots 11,806 1.28 −0.23 Total 925,248 60 ±0 Valid votes 925,248 99.44 +0.02 Invalid votes 5,201 0.56 −0.02 Votes cast / turnout 930,449 64.59 +3.79 Abstentions 510,127 35.41 −3.79 Registered voters 1,440,576 Sources

Distribution by constituency Constituency CC PP PSOE FNC % S % S % S % S El Hierro 45.0 2 24.8 1 21.6 − 7.1 − Fuerteventura 30.2 2 32.5 3 25.4 2 7.1 − Gran Canaria 21.6 4 47.4 8 20.6 3 4.6 − La Gomera 34.8 1 7.3 − 54.4 3 1.0 − La Palma 50.7 4 23.4 2 23.1 2 Lanzarote 19.5 2 17.7 1 20.9 2 30.4 3 Tenerife 44.3 8 15.5 2 30.6 5 2.7 − Total 32.9 23 30.6 17 25.4 17 4.8 3 Sources

Aftermath Government formation Investiture Ballot → 4 July 2003 Required majority → 31 out of 60 Abstentions Sources

Notes

References Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography