Chamber:
	Senado
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	3 March 1996
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the elective seats in Parliament following premature dissolution of this body on 9 January 1996 . General elections had previously been held in June 1993.
Background and outcome of elections:
	On 28 December 1995, following loss of allied parliamentary support which prevented passage of the country's 1996 budget, Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez Marquez (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party - PSOE) announced that the general elections would be held 15 months early, in March 1996. Ten days earlier, after some hesitation, Mr. Gonzalez had agreed to seek a fifth term in the office he had held since 1982. The campaign officially began on 16 February. As in recent elections, the PSOE's main challenge came from the conservative People’s Party (PP) headed by Mr. José Maria Aznar. Since there were no major differences in the platforms of the two groups, including economic policies, the emphasis lay as much on the personalities of the two leaders. Mr. Aznar called for a change after years of Socialist rule, while the charismatic Mr. Gonzalez, running an emotional campaign, claimed he was best fit to govern. Pre-election polls had the PP clearly ahead of the scandal - ridden PSOE minority Government. This margin proved less than expected on voting day, as the conservatives fell short of the targeted absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies and the Socialists' share of the popular vote fell but 1.3%. In this context, Mr. Aznar was obliged to look for support among the smaller regional parties, especially the Catalan-based Convergence of Union of Mr. Jordi Pujol, who had prompted the polling in the first place by abandoning his party's informal alliance with the PSOE and thus deprived it of a working majority. The Basque and Catalan nationalist parties ultimately agreed to support the PP and, on 5 May, Mr. Aznar was sworn in as Prime Minister; he announced his 14-member Cabinet the same day.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (3 March 1996): Elections results
Number of registered electors	32,531,833

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total	Directly elected	Regional Reps.
People's Party (PP)	133	112	21
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	96	81	15
Convergence and Union (CiU)	11	8	3
Basque Nationalist Party (PNV)	6	4	2
Others	10	3	7

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	222
Women:	34

Distribution of seats according to age:
Under 31 years	5
31-40 years	51
41-50 years	96
51-60 years	78
61-70 years	22
Over 70 years	4
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Teachers	59
Employees	42
Lawyers	41
Civil servants	24
Businessmen	20
Engineers	17
Doctors	15
Others	38