Castellón (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Castellón is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

Parliament, the Cortes Generales

Cortes Generales

The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...

. It was first contested in modern times in the 1977 General Election

Spanish general election, 1977

The Spanish general election of 1977 took place on 15 June 1977. It was the first election since the death of Francisco Franco.Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The elections were held using closed list proportional representation in 52 electoral districts...

. It is one of three districts which correspond to the provinces of the autonomous community of Valencia

Valencian Community

The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain located in central and south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Valencia...

. Castellón de la Plana

Castellón de la Plana

Castellón de la Plana or Castelló de la Plana is the capital city of the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain, in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea...

is the largest town with just over a quarter of the electorate. Villarreal is the only other municipality with an electorate over 30,000. The constituency produced a close result in 2004 although the People's Party

People's Party (Spain)

The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...

(PP) increased their lead over the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...

(PSOE) in 2008.

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution
the boundaries must be the same as the province of Castellón

Castellón (province)

Castellón or Castelló is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The western side of the province is in the mountainous...

and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage

Universal suffrage

Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...

in a secret ballot

Secret ballot

The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. The system is one means of achieving the goal of...

. The electoral system used is closed list

Closed list

Closed list describes the variant of party-list proportional representation where voters can only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected...

proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method

D'Hondt method

The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...

. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of the Cortes and regional assemblies, meaning that candidates must resign from Regional Assemblies if elected. Article 70 also makes active judges, magistrates, public defenders, serving military personnel, active police officers and members of constitutional and electoral tribunals ineligible.

Number of members

Castellón has returned five members from the 1977

Spanish general election, 1977

election onwards.

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population. These laws are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General) The practical effect of this law has been to overrepresent smaller provinces like Castellón at the expense of larger provinces.

In 2008 for example Spain had 35,073,179 voters giving an average of 100,209 voters per deputy. In Castellón the ratio was below that at 82,217.

Summary of seats won 1977-2008

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	2	3
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in... (PSOE)	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2
Independent Centre Candidate (Ind)	1
People's Party People's Party (Spain) The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship... (PP)			2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3

Seats shown for the People's Party include seats won by their predecessors, the Popular Alliance and the Popular Coalition before 1989. This includes seats won in 1982 as part of an electoral alliance with Unió Valenciana

Unió Valenciana

Valencian Union was a nationalist political party in the Valencian Community, Spain....

, a regional party.

The independent candidate subsequently joined the UCD group in congress.

Vote share Summary 1977-2008

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	35.3	46.3	12.8
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in... (PSOE)	29.4	35.7	49.6	44.3	41.7	39.6	40.0	35.4	44.6	44.2
Independent Centre Candidate (Ind)	12.5
People's Party People's Party (Spain) The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship... (PP)	6.1	3.5	28.1	34.1	33.9	44.9	46.5	53.8	45.6	49.0
Valencian Union Unió Valenciana Valencian Union was a nationalist political party in the Valencian Community, Spain.... (UV)			28.1		1.3	1.8	2.0	1.2
United Left United Left (Spain) The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain... (IU)	5.9	7.2	3.2	3.1	5.5	7.1	7.6	3.8	3.3	2.1
Popular Socialist Party Popular Socialist Party (Spain) The People's Socialist Party was a Spanish political party.The origins of the party dated back to 1954 when the University professor, Enrique Tierno Galván published various academic studies of a Marxist character. In 1965, working together with Raúl Morodo, he formed the Castillian Socialist... (PSP)	2.7
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)			2.7	13.0	8.8	2.0	0.2	0.1	0.2

Results

Castellón produced one of the closest results in 2004 with the PP narrowly taking the fifth seat ahead of the PSOE. In the largest municipalities the results were similarly close. Castellón de la Plana produced a near dead heat with PSOE finishing just 28 votes (0.03%) ahead of the PP, while the PSOE were also 651 votes (2.45%) ahead in Villarreal. In 2008, the PP increased their lead overall and led in Castellon by just over 3000 votes (3.4%) and by 1000 votes (4.0%) in Villarreal.

2008 General Election

People's Party (Spain)

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

United Left (Spain)

The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...

|align="right" |6,635
|align="right" |2.09
|align="right" |0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |11,692
|align="right" |3.70
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
|-
|}

2004 General Election

Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results

Spanish legislative election, 2004

Legislative elections were held in Spain on 14 March 2004. At stake were all 350 seats in the lower house of the Cortes Generales, the Congress of Deputies, and 208 seats in upper house, the Senate. The governing People's Party was led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy, successor to outgoing...

People's Party (Spain)

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

United Left (Spain)

|align="right" |10,332
|align="right" |3.31
|align="right" |0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Bloc Nacionalista Valencia-Esquerra Verda
|align="right" valign=top|6,325
|align="right" valign=top|2.03
|align="right" valign=top|0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |8,804
|align="right" |2.70
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
|-
|}

2000 General Election

People's Party (Spain)

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

United Left (Spain)

Unió Valenciana

Valencian Union was a nationalist political party in the Valencian Community, Spain....

(Unió Valenciana)
|align="right" valign=top|3,511
|align="right" valign=top|1.24
|align="right" valign=top|0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |6,073
|align="right" |2.10
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
|-
|}

source:

External links

List of members by year

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