Ourense (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Ourense is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciones) 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 located in the Community of Galicia. It was the only constituency in the 2008 General Election where the PSOE gained a seat from the PP.

Boundaries and electoral system

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

Ourense (province)

Ourense is a province of northwestern Spain, in the southeastern part of the Autonomous Community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Pontevedra in the west, Lugo in the north, León and Zamora in the east, and by Portugal in the south. With an area of 7,278 square km it is the only...

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

In the general elections of 1977 until 1989 Ourense returned 5 members. That figure was reduced to 4 members from the 1993 General 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 Ourense.

In 2004 for example Spain had 34,571,831 voters giving an average of 98,777 voters per deputy 2004 Spanish election. In Ourense however the number of voters per deputy was slightly below that at 82,173.

Summary of seats won 1977–2008

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

Note: Seats shown for the PP include seats won by their predecessors, the Popular Alliance and Popular Coalition before 1989.

Results

The 2008 election saw the biggest drop in any district in the PP's vote share and one of the ten largest rises for the PSOE, with the result that it was the only district where the PSOE gained a seat from the PP.

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...

Armando González

Armando González is a Paraguayan football midfielder who played for Paraguay in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Club Guaraní.-External links:*...

, Ana Belén Vázquez
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|align=left|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...

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" |2,055
|align="right" |0.86
|align="right" |0
|align="left" |
|-
|align=left|Others
|align="right" |1,919
|align="right" |0.77
|align="right" |0
|align="right" |
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External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.