Lugo (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Lugo is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciónes) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies

Spanish Congress of Deputies

The Spanish Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation in constituencies matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms...

- 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 is one of the four districts which correspond to the provinces of Galicia. Lugo

Lugo

Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...

is the largest municipality and the only municipality with more than 75,000 voters. The district has been unusual in that, although the parties of the right have maintained the lead, it has shown a long term shift to the left relative to other districts (see results section below).

Boundaries and electoral system

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

Lugo (province)

Lugo is a province of northwestern Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense, Pontevedra, and A Coruña, the principality of Asturias, the State of León, and in the north by the Cantabrian Sea .The population is 356,595 , of...

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

From 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...

onwards Lugo returned five members. This figure was reduced to four members for the 1996 General Election

Spanish general election, 1996

General elections were held in Spain on March 3, 1996. The Prime Minister Felipe González of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lost the elections to Partido Popular and their leader José María Aznar....

and it has retained that allocation since then.

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 at the expense of larger province.

In 2004 for example Spain had 34,571,831 voters giving an average of 98,777 voters per deputy 2004 Spanish election. In Lugo however the number of voters per deputy was slightly below that at 86,859..

Summary of seats won 1977–2008

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	4	3	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)	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2
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)		1	1	2	2	2	1	1	2	2

Seats shown for the Peoples Party include seats won by their predecessors the Popular Alliance in 1982 and the Popular Coalition in 1986.

Vote share summary 1977-2004

	1977	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1996	2000	2004	2008
Democratic Centre Union (UCD)	52.1	50.3	18.2
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)	21.8	19.3	46.5	46.8	45.8	53.2	53.5	58.0	49.7	45.6
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)	12.5	17.6	28.0	29.6	31.4	32.2	32.5	22.9	37.2	39.9
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)	5.7
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)	1.8	1.3	0.7	0.7	2.0	2.7	2.6	1.0	1.0	1.0
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)			2.0	6.5	6.1	1.3	0.2	0.1	0.1
Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG)				10.6	7.0	7.2	10.0	16.2	10.1	11.4

Vote share for IU includes results for their predecessors, The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) before 1986. Results for BNG include those for the Galician Coalition in 1986.

Results

Although, Lugo has long been a stronghold of the parties of the right, it has shown a long term shift to the left. In the 1977 election it was one of only five districts along with Orense, Ávila

Ávila (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Ávila is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is one of the nine electoral districts which correspond to the provinces of Castile and León. Ávila is the largest town with only 43,000...

, Ceuta

Ceuta (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Ceuta is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales...

and Melilla

Melilla (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Melilla is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales...

where the PSOE failed to win a seat. Subsequently however the PSOE increased their share of the vote at every election up to and including 1996, despite losing ground nationally in the elections of 1986, 1989, 1993 and 1996.

The 2004 election saw PSOE produce their best ever result in the district, making it one of the few districts where they polled better than in their best year of 1982. In total, the PSOE vote grew by 14.3%, a figure above their national average increase of 8.4%. Consequently the swing

Swing (politics)

An electoral swing analysis shows the extent of change in voter support from one election to another. It is an indicator of voter support for individual candidates or political parties, or voter preference between two or more candidates or parties...

from PP to PSOE was 11.3% - the second largest swing of the election between the two main parties (with Zaragoza

Zaragoza (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Zaragoza is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is one of the three electoral districts which correspond to the provinces of Aragon...

producing the largest swing.) PSOE also succeeded in outpolling PP in Lugo municipality for the first time ever.

The 2008 continued this trend, with PSOE bettering their 2004 result and PP having their third biggest drop in the vote after Orense and Melilla.

With the exception of the 1977 election, Lugo has always been one of the worst districts for the far left and IU had their fourth worst showing overall here in 2004.

2004 General Election

Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies

Spanish 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)

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...

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...

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...

(Izquierda Unida)
|align="right" |2,570
|align="right" |1.03
|align="right" |0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |1,922
|align="right" |0.80
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
|-
|}

Source:

2000 General Election
Spanish general election, 2000
Legislative elections were held in Spain on 12 March 2000. The incumbent People's Party of Prime Minister José María Aznar was elected to a second term in office, converting its plurality of seats in the Congress of Deputies into a majority, and increasing its lead over the opposition Spanish...

Summary of the 12 March 2000 Congress of Deputies

Spanish Congress of Deputies

election results

Spanish legislative election, 2004

People's Party (Spain)

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party

United Left (Spain)

(Izquierda Unida)
|align="right" |2,297
|align="right" |0.99
|align="right" |0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |2,041
|align="right" |0.90
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
|-
|}

External links

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