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SPAIN
Congreso de los Diputados (Congress of Deputies)
ELECTIONS IN 2008

Compare data for parliamentary chambers in the Last elections module

A historical Archive of past election results for this chamber can be found on a separate page

Parliament name (generic / translated) Las Cortes Generales / The Cortes
Structure of parliament Bicameral
Chamber name (generic / translated) Congreso de los Diputados / Congress of Deputies
Related chamber (for bicameral parliaments) Senado / Senate
BACKGROUND
Dates of election / renewal (from/to) 9 March 2008
Purpose of elections Elections were held for all the seats in the Congress of Deputies following premature dissolution of this body on 14 January 2008. Elections to the Congress of Deputies had previously taken place on 14 March 2004.
On 20 December 2007 Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced that parliamentary elections would be held on 9 March. The bicameral parliament was subsequently dissolved on 14 January 2008. At stake were all 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies and the 208 directly elected seats in the 264-member Senate.

The previous elections had been held on 14 March 2004 three days after the bombings of commuter trains and train stations which killed nearly 200 people and wounded more than 1 400. The then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of the People's Party (PP) initially blamed ETA (the Basque separatist group) for the attack. However al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the attack linking the bombing to Mr. Aznar's policy towards Iraq. The incident reportedly boosted support for Mr. Zapatero's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). It became the largest party in the Congress of Deputies taking 168 seats 16 more than the PP led by Mr. Mariano Rajoy. The PP remained the largest party in the Senate winning 126 seats while the PSOE took 96. Other seats went to small parties.

Mr. Zapatero was sworn in as Prime Minister in April 2004. He ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq who subsequently left Iraq on 28 April. Mr. Zapatero implemented numerous reforms. They included a gender equality law the legalization of gay marriage an amnesty for illegal immigrants in the country as well as a historical memory law passed by the Parliament in October 2007. This stipulates that trials held under the Francisco Franco regime - which cost an estimated 500 000 lives between 1939 and 1975 - would be ruled illegitimate and the victims of the regime recognized. The PP argued the law unnecessarily stirred up the past. Human rights groups criticised the law for falling short of providing justice and called for measures to annul the trials in order to clear the victims' names.

As a result of the gender equality law all parties had a 50-50 gender balance for the candidates contesting the 2008 elections. Once again there was a duel between the PSOE and the PP. Due to the stagnating economy and a 12-year high inflation rate Mr. Rajoy (PP) accused the socialist government of not taking enough measures to boost the economy. Prime Minister Zapatero rebutted that his government was willing to use a budget surplus to revive the economy. Both PSOE and the PP promised tax cuts.

The PP also called for a "contract" for immigrants. It argued that immigrants should respect Spanish customs and values and should be expelled if they failed to find work within a year of their arrival. The proposal was reportedly aimed at African immigrants. Prime Minister Zapatero argued that the immigration issue must be treated comprehensively through political and economic cooperation with African countries.

Two days before the polls a former town councillor Mr. Isaias Carrasco of the PSOE was shot dead in the Basque region. Police blamed ETA for the shooting and the election campaign was briefly halted.

Voters cast separate ballots for each chamber. Turnout was recorded at 75.32 per cent for the Congress of Deputies and 76.03 per cent for the Senate among nearly 39 million registered voters.

The PSOE remained the largest party in the Congress of Deputies with 169 seats followed by the PP with 153. The PP took 101 seats of the 208 directly elected seats in the Senate 12 more than the PSOE. In all 127 women were elected to the Congress of Deputies while 67 were elected to the Senate.

On 1 April both chambers held their first sitting. Mr. José Bono Martínez (PSOE) was elected Speaker of the Congress of Deputies. Mr. Francisco Javier Rojo García (PSOE) was re-elected as Senate President.

On 11 April Mr. Zapatero won the confidence of the Congress of Deputies with 169 votes at the second round of voting. On the following day he appointed a 17-member cabinet including nine women.
STATISTICS
Voter turnout
Round no 19 March 2008
Number of registered electors
Voters
Blank or invalid ballot papers
Valid votes
33'875'268
25'514'671 (75.32%)
447'284
25'067'387
Notes
Distribution of votes
Round no 1
Political Group Candidates Votes %
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 11'064'524 44.14
People's Party (PP) 10'169'973 40.57
Convergence and Union (CiU) 774'317 3.09
Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) 303'246 1.21
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 296'473 1.18
United Left (IU) 963'040 3.84
Galician Nationalist Party (BNG) 209'042 0.83
Canarian Coalition - Canarian Nationalist Party (CC-PNC) 164'255 0.66
Union Progress and Democracy (UPyD) 303'535 1.21
Nafarroa Bai (Na-Bai) 62'073 0.25
Distribution of seats
Round no 1
Political Group Total
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 169
People's Party (PP) 153
Convergence and Union (CiU) 11
Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) 6
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 3
United Left (IU) 2
Galician Nationalist Party (BNG) 2
Canarian Coalition - Canarian Nationalist Party (CC-PNC) 2
Union Progress and Democracy (UPyD) 1
Nafarroa Bai (Na-Bai) 1
Distribution of seats according to sex
Men
Women
Percent of women
223
127
36.29%
Distribution of seats according to age
Distribution of seats according to profession
Comments
Sources:
- Congress of Deputies (01.01.2010)
- http://www.generales2008.mir.es/ini99v.htm
- http://www.congreso.es/

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