1985 Galician regional election

Date

The term of the Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place between 54 and 60 days after the decree's publication.^[3] The previous election was held on 20 October 1981, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 20 October 1985. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 26 September 1985, setting the latest possible date for election day on 25 November 1985.

The Parliament of Galicia 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.^[4]

The election to the Parliament of Galicia was officially called on 26 September 1985 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOG, setting election day for 24 November and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 17 December.^[5]

Electoral system

Voting for the Parliament was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Galicia 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.^[6]

The Parliament of Galicia had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 80 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 71. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency.^[7] The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.^[8]

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:^[9]

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.^[10]

Outgoing parliament

The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.^[11][12]

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; 36 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia.

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

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout				BNG					CG	Lead
1985 regional election	24 Nov 1985	—N/a	57.4	[d]	–	28.7 22	4.2 1	5.7 3	0.8 0	3.3 0	40.9 34	12.9 11	12.2
Alef/El País[p 1][p 2]	13–14 Nov 1985	1,200	?	[d]	–	30.6 23/25	6.1 2/3	4.9 2	1.0 0	7.5 4	40.0 32/34	8.1 5/6	9.4
Aresco/ABC[p 3]	4–8 Nov 1985	1,050	?	[d]	–	28.8 21/25	4.2 0/2	4.9 0/3	2.0 0	6.6 2/5	41.3 35/40	7.1 3/7	12.5
Alef/El País[p 4]	23–25 Oct 1985	1,000	64.7	[d]	–	31.9 23/27	6.0 3	–	2.0 2	7.3 3/4	40.0 32/36	7.3 4/5	8.1
Sofemasa/CEOE[p 5]	24 Jun–7 Jul 1985	1,865	?	[d]	–	31.9 27	2.9 0	3.5 2	1.0 0	3.5 1	45.1 38	5.9 3	13.2
Typol/AP[p 6]	18 Sep–9 Oct 1984	2,003	65.5	[d]	–	33.5 26/28	6.2 1/3	3.5 1/2	2.7 0	3.7 1	38.9 30/34	9.2 6/8	5.4
1982 general election	28 Oct 1982	—N/a	63.7	37.6 (31)	17.7 (15)	32.8 (25)	3.0 (0)	1.7[e] (0)	1.5 (0)	2.6 (0)	–	–	4.8
1981 regional election	20 Oct 1981	—N/a	46.3	30.5 26	27.8 24	19.6 16	6.3 3	3.4[e] 1	2.9 1	–	–	–	2.7

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Overall

More information Parties and alliances, Popular vote ...

← Summary of the 24 November 1985 Parliament of Galicia election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Coalition (AP–PDP–PL–CdG)1	516,218	40.89	+10.37	34	+8
	Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdG–PSOE)	361,946	28.67	+9.05	22	+6
	Galician Coalition (CG)	163,425	12.94	New	11	+11
	Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left (PSG–EG)2	71,599	5.67	+2.27	3	+2
	Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)3	53,072	4.20	−2.07	1	−2
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	41,411	3.28	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of Galicia (PCE–PCG)	10,625	0.84	−2.09	0	−1
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	9,689	0.77	−1.08	0	±0
	Communist Party of Galicia (Revolutionary Marxist) (PCG (m–r))	8,318	0.66	New	0	±0
	Humanist Platform (PH)	7,280	0.58	New	0	±0
	Galician Party of the Country (PGC)	3,172	0.25	New	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	2,922	0.23	+0.08	0	±0
	Communist Party of Spain (Marxist–Leninist) (PCE (m–l))	1,554	0.12	±0.00	0	±0
	Galician Socialist Unity (USG)	1,379	0.11	−1.18	0	±0
	Communist Movement of Galicia (MCG)	1,327	0.11	−0.38	0	±0
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	n/a	n/a	−27.80	0	−24
Blank ballots		8,627	0.68	+0.68
Total		1,262,564			71	±0
Valid votes		1,262,564	98.80	+0.79
Invalid votes		15,333	1.20	−0.79
Votes cast / turnout		1,277,897	57.40	+11.12
Abstentions		948,552	42.60	−11.12
Registered voters		2,226,449
Sources[11][13]
Footnotes: 1 People's Coalition results are compared to People's Alliance totals in the 1981 election. 2 Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left results are compared to Galician Left totals in the 1981 election. 3 Galician Nationalist Bloc results are compared to Galician National-Popular Bloc–Galician Socialist Party totals in the 1981 election.

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Distribution by constituency

Government formation

More information Ballot →, 16 January 1986 ...

Investiture Nomination of Gerardo Fernández Albor (AP)
Ballot →		16 January 1986	17 January 1986
Required majority →		36 out of 71 N	Simple N
	Yes • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (34)	34 / 71	34 / 71
	No • PSdG (22) • CG (11) • PSG–EG (3) • BNG (1)	37 / 71	37 / 71
	Abstentions	0 / 71	0 / 71
	Absentees	0 / 71	0 / 71
Sources[11]

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More information Ballot →, 20 February 1986 ...

Investiture Nomination of Gerardo Fernández Albor (AP)
Ballot →		20 February 1986	21 February 1986
Required majority →		36 out of 71 N	Simple Y
	Yes • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (34) (33 on 20 Feb)	33 / 71	34 / 71
	No • PSdG (22) • PSG–EG (3) • BNG (1)	26 / 71	26 / 71
	Abstentions • CG (11) (10 on 20 Feb)	10 / 71	11 / 71
	Absentees • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (1) (on 20 Feb) • CG (1) (on 20 Feb)	2 / 71	0 / 71
Sources[11]

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1987 motion of no confidence

More information Ballot →, 23 September 1987 ...

Motion of no confidence Nomination of Fernando González Laxe (PSdG)
Ballot →		23 September 1987
Required majority →		36 out of 71 Y
	Yes • PSdG (22) • CG–UDG (10) • PNG (5) • PSG–EG (3)	40 / 71
	No • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (29)	29 / 71
	Abstentions • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (1) • BNG (1)	2 / 71
	Absentees	0 / 71
Sources[11]

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