1983 Navarrese regional election

Date

The Foral Deputation of Navarre, in agreement with the Government of Spain, was required to call an election to the Parliament of Navarre within from 1 February to 31 May 1983.^[18]

The Parliament of Navarre could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament.^[19]

On 7 March 1983, it was confirmed that the Parliament election would be held on 8 May, together with regional elections for twelve other autonomous communities as well as the regularly scheduled nationwide local elections.^[20][21][22] The election to the Parliament of Navarre was officially called on 10 March 1983 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the Official Gazette of Navarre, setting election day for 8 May.^[23]

Electoral system

Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Navarre and with full political rights.^[24]

The Parliament of Navarre had 50 seats in its first election. All were elected in a single multi-member constituency—corresponding to the chartered community's territory—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) regionally.^[25]

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.^[26]

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

More information Polling firm/Commissioner, Fieldwork date ...

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size					PNV			?	N	Lead
1983 regional election	8 May 1983	—N/a	–	25.0	16.3	9.9	4.8	1.7	7.4	—N/a	29.1	8.7
CISE–Metra Seis–ECO/CIS[p 1]	5–11 Apr 1983	400	–	26.2	8.5	8.0	4.5	1.5	3.2	34.0	10.8	17.7
1982 general election	28 Oct 1982	—N/a	8.3	29.8	[b]	9.2	4.4	2.2	20.3[c]	—N/a	18.7	9.5
1979 foral election	3 Apr 1979	—N/a	18.6	13.2	11.2	7.7	–	–	–	—N/a	29.2	5.4

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Government formation

After the regional election, UPN and the People's Coalition formed an alliance to take the post of speaker of the regional Parliament away from the PSOE, electing UPN's Balbino Bados for the post.^[29] This allowed both parties to take control of the investiture process and nominate José Ángel Zubiaur as candidate for investiture.^[7][30]

More information Ballot →, 21 June 1983 ...

Investiture Nomination of José Ángel Zubiaur (UPN)
Ballot →		21 June 1983	23 June 1983	25 June 1983	27 June 1983
Required majority →		26 out of 50 N	26 out of 50 N	Simple N	Simple N
	Yes • UPN (13) • AP–PDP–UL (8)	21 / 50	21 / 50	21 / 50	21 / 50
	No • PSOE (20) • PNV (3)	23 / 50	23 / 50	23 / 50	23 / 50
	Abstentions	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50
	Absentees • HB (6)	6 / 50	6 / 50	6 / 50	6 / 50
Sources[27][31][32]

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The attempts to form a Zubiaur-led right-wing government were voted down by both PSOE and PNV, which unsuccessfully held exploratory talks to test an agreement to unlock the situation.^[33] After the failure of negotiations, PSOE candidate Gabriel Urralburu had hoped to automatically become new regional president on 21 August 1983 under statutory provisions as the candidate from the party with the highest number of seats,^[34] but a clash between PSOE and UPN—whose leader Balbino Ados held the presidency of the regional parliament, the office tasked with nominating a prospective president—over the law's interpretation as to whom should be proposed as candidate resulted in a constitutional conflict. The PSOE's stance was that the legal provision from Section 29.3 of the Enhancement Law required the automatic election of the candidate from the largest party in parliament—meaning that Gabriel Urralburu was to become the new Navarrese president—whereas UPN argued that the pre-requisite condition of "candidate" was only obtained by having contested an investiture process, a criterion which up until that point only José Ángel Zubiaur had met.^[9][10][11]

On 25 August, and against the advice from the Parliament's legal services,^[35] Bados attempted to have Zubiaur nominated as new president pending the King's confirmation,^[36] a decision which was heavily criticized by all parties but UPN and AP,^[37][38] and which was summarily aborted by the Government of Spain and the regional PSOE bringing the issue to the Constitutional Court.^[39][40][41] This situation forced incumbent president Juan Manuel Arza to remain in the post in a caretaker capacity until the Court ruled on the issue,^[42] in a situation of political and administrative deadlock as the region relied on a prorogued 1982 budget,^[43][44] resigning government members could not be replaced,^[45] and legislative and cooperation projects stagnated.^[46] This was further aggravated in January 1984 after the Constitutional Court declared as null and void the dismissal in 1980 of previous president Jaime Ignacio del Burgo, reinstating him to the post until the election of the new regional premier.^{[47][48][49][50]}

In February 1984, the Constitutional Court ruled that the investiture process was to be returned to the moment after Zubiaur's fourth failed voting and that a new candidate had to be proposed for a new round of votings, with the mandate to the regional Parliament to designate "the candidate of the political party that has the largest number of seats and that had been proposed as such to the president of Parliament by that party" in the event of no successful investiture.^[12][51][52] Urralburu was proposed as new candidate for investiture as both PSOE and UPN sought to obtain PNV's support.^[53][54][55]

More information Ballot →, 2 March 1984 ...

Investiture Nomination of Gabriel Urralburu (PSOE)
Ballot →		2 March 1984	4 March 1984	6 March 1984	8 March 1984
Required majority →		26 out of 50 N	26 out of 50 N	Simple N	Simple N
	Yes • PSOE (20)	20 / 50	20 / 50	20 / 50	20 / 50
	No • UPN (13) • AP–PDP–UL (8) • PNV (3)	24 / 50	24 / 50	24 / 50	24 / 50
	Abstentions	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50
	Absentees • HB (6)	6 / 50	6 / 50	6 / 50	6 / 50
Sources[27][56][57][58]

Close

Urralburu failed in his attempts to obtain the confidence of parliament, as UPN, CP and PNV started talks to form a coalition government and avoid Urralburu's automatic election in April.^[59][60][61] On 13 March 1984, Balbino Ados proposed UPN's Juan Cruz Alli for investiture, with a parliamentary session initially scheduled for 22 March,^[62] but this attempt was averted as a result of the breakup of negotiations with the PNV,^[13][63] which was internally divided over the support or facilitation-through-abstention of a right-wing government in Navarre as favoured by the party's leadership but not by their local Navarrese branch.^[64][65][66] José Luis Monge was proposed by AP as a last-ditch attempt to hold an investiture session and prevent Urralburu's election.^{[67][68][69][70]}

More information Ballot →, 8 April 1984 ...

Investiture Nomination of José Luis Monge (AP)
Ballot →		8 April 1984	10 April 1984	12 April 1984	14 April 1984
Required majority →		26 out of 50 N	26 out of 50 N	Simple N	Simple N
	Yes • UPN (13) • AP–PDP–UL (8)	21 / 50	21 / 50	21 / 50	21 / 50
	No • PSOE (20) (19 until 10 Apr) • PNV (3)	22 / 50	22 / 50	23 / 50	23 / 50
	Abstentions	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50	0 / 50
	Absentees • HB (6) • PSOE (1) (until 10 Apr)	7 / 50	7 / 50	6 / 50	6 / 50
Sources[27][71][72]

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With Monge's defeat, Urralburu was set to be proclaimed new Navarrese president on 17 April, allowing the formation of a new government and ending the political deadlock that had resulted from the 1983 regional election.^[73][74][75]