The 1991 Cantabrian regional election was held on Sunday, 26 May 1991, to elect the 3rd Regional Assembly of the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

. All 39 seats in the Regional Assembly were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in 12 other autonomous communities and

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

all throughout

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...

(PSOE) under incumbent President Jaime Blanco went on to win its first and only regional election in Cantabria. Juan Hormaechea's

Union for the Progress of Cantabria The Union for the Progress of Cantabria ( es, Unión para el Progreso de Cantabria, UPCA) was a political party in the Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spa ...

(UPCA), a split from the People's Party (PP), won 15 seats and 33% of the vote, with the PP vote collapsing to 6 seats and 14% of the vote as a result. The

Regionalist Party of Cantabria The Regionalist Party of Cantabria ( es, Partido Regionalista de Cantabria, PRC) is the second oldest political party in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria. The PRC originated in the Association in Defense of the Interests of Cantabr ...

(PRC) suffered from the UPCA's surge and returned to its 1983 results, while the Democratic and Social Centre did not reach the required 5% threshold and was expelled from parliament. Juan Hormaechea managed to get re-elected as regional President thanks to a UPCA-PP agreement. He had been forced to resign in late 1990, after a no-confidence motion was passed against him by an alliance of PSOE, PP, PRC and CDS.

Overview

Electoral system

The

Regional Assembly of Cantabria The Parliament of Cantabria, is the unicameral legislature of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria. It consists of 35 members called "deputies" which are freely elected by the citizens of the region. The Parliament convenes at the Saint Raphael ...

was the

devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

unicameral legislature Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

of the

, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the

Spanish Constitution The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...

and the Cantabrian Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a President of the Regional Deputation. Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...

, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Cantabria and in full enjoyment of their political rights. The 39 members of the Regional Assembly of Cantabria were elected using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...

and a closed list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, with an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied regionally. The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure the signature of at least 1 percent of the electors registered in Cantabria. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election being called.

Election date

The term of the Regional Assembly of Cantabria expired four years after the date of its previous election. Legal amendments earlier in 1991 established that elections to the Regional Assembly were to be fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. The previous election was held on 10 June 1987, setting the election date for the Parliament on Sunday, 26 May 1991. The Regional Assembly of Cantabria could not be dissolved before the date of expiry 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 Regional Assembly was to be automatically dissolved and a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

called, with elected deputies merely serving out what remained of their four-year terms.

Background

The 1987 election had seen AP candidate Juan Hormaechea win the election with 19 out of 39 seats, 1 short for the absolute majority. Hormaechea, who had been Mayor of Santander between 1974 and 1987 and stood as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

within AP, was elected as President of Cantabria thanks to the abstention vote of the

CDS The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

two deputies. However, from the beginning Hormaechea's tenure as regional President was controversial. Shortly after being elected, in August 1987, Hormaechea announced "difficulties" in forming a regional government, claiming pressures from AP to force him to name prominent party members as regional ministers, accusing AP of "seeking to create wealth for themselves instead of wanting to serve the region" and threatening to resign from his office. The government crisis was temporarily solved with the naming of three independents and four AP members as regional ministers. Hormaechea would star another incidents throughout the legislature, including insults to other parties' deputies, accusations to the Assembly

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

Eduardo Obregón (PSOE) of

official misconduct An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...

(which resulted in a legal complaint against Hormaechea), as well as accusations from the three opposition parties (PSOE, PRC and CDS) of a continued disregard for the regional chamber. Hormaechea was also accused of political misconduct, such as

extorting Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...

other deputies in exchange of their votes,

bribing Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corr ...

MPs from other parties, as well as

influence peddling Influence peddling is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. It is also called traffic of influence or trading i ...

favoring family members and physically attacking a PSOE senator. Further, in late 1989, a controversy arose after Hormaechea declared he was not supporting the People's Party, successor party to AP, for that year's general election. From that point, the deteriorating relationship between the PP and Hormaechea as a result of the latter's personalism and marginalization of the party's structure in the region triggered a political crisis. Hormaechea's insults to party leaders in late 1990 motivated the PP's decision not to choose him as candidate for the incoming 1991 election, as well as the party presenting a

motion of censure A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

on Hormaechea to remove him from the regional government, with the support from the PSOE, PRC and CDS, electing PSOE leader Jaime Blanco as the head of a coalition administration for the remainder of the legislature. This caused a split within the regional PP, with 12 deputies supporting Hormaechea and 7 supporting the no-confidence motion against him. Hormaechea's grouping went on to form a separate party, the

(UPCA), to stand for the 1991 election.

Campaign

The unveiling of irregularities within the finances of Hormaechea's government conducted by Blanco's coalition government marked the electoral campaign into the 1991 election. Hormaechea's management of the regional budget had left a public debt worth of 80,000 million pesetas, while auditors discovered expenditures during the 1987-1990 period that were difficult to justify, with evidence pointing to embezzlement during Hormaechea's tenure. The

(PSOE) tried to benefit from the split in the centre-right vote, with former

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

Alfonso Guerra asking conservative voters to vote the PSOE "for this time", reminding the chaotic political situation of the community as a result of the infighting between former President Juan Hormaechea and the People's Party leadership.

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 20 seats were required for an

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority r ...

in the

Results

Aftermath

Government formation

1993 motion of no confidence

1994 motion of no confidence

1994 failed investiture attempts

Notes

References

;Opinion poll sources ;Other {{Regional elections in Spain in the 1990s 1991 in Cantabria

Regional elections in Cantabria May 1991 events in Europe