Las Palmas (Spanish Congress electoral district)

Location of Las Palmas electoral district

Las Palmas is one of the 52 electoral districts (circunscripciónes) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It was first contested in modern times in the 1977 General Election and covers the Eastern part of the Canary Islands. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the largest municipality, accounting for over 40% of the electorate [1]

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution [2] the boundaries must be the same as the province of Las Palmas and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. 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.

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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.[2]

Number of members

Las Palmas initially returned six members. This was increased to seven members for the 1986 election. It was increased to its current figure of eight members at the 2004 election.

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are entitled to a minimum of 2 seats with a remaining 248 seats apportioned according to population.[3] 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 provinces.

In 2004 Spain had 34,571,831 voters giving an average of 98,777 voters per deputy.[4] Las Palmas was close to the average with the ratio being 92,020.[5]

Summary of seats won 1977–2015

1977 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2004 2008 2011 2015
Democratic Centre Union (UCD) 5 4 1
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 1 3 4 2 2
Canarian Peoples Union (Unión del Pueblo Canario) (UPC) 1
People's Party (PP) 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 3
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 2 2
Canarian Coalition (CC) 2 2 2 1 1 1
Podemos (Podemos) 2
Citizens (C's) 1

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

The Canarian Peoples Union was a coalition of various local left wing or regionalist parties. After its dissolution in the 1980s some of these parties became part of either the PSOE or the Canarian Coalition.

Results

2015 General Election

Summary of the 20 December 2015 Congress of Deputies election results in Las Palmas

 
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 145,240 28.2 3
Podemos 136,278 26.4 2
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party-New Canarias 115,431 22.4 2
Citizens 63,247 12.3 1
Canarian Coalition-Canarian Nationalist Party 21,755 4.2 0
People's Unity 15,235 3.0 0
Animalist Party 5,348 1.0 0
Union, Progress and Democracy 2,557 0.5 0
Others 6,144 1.2 0

2011 General Election

Summary of the 20 November 2011 Congress of Deputies election results in Las Palmas

 
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 240,897 51.0 5
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 123,486 26.2 2
Canarian Coalition-Canarian Nationalist Party-New Canarias 53,329 11.3 1
United Left 19,971 4.2 0
Union, Progress and Democracy 13,208 2.8 0
Equo 5,414 1.1 0
Others 6,781 1.4 0

2008 General Election

Summary of the 9 March 2008 Congress of Deputies election results in Las Palmas

 
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 215,560 42.6 4
People's Party (Partido Popular) 201,067 39.7 4
New Canarias 38,024 7.5 0
Canarian Coalition-Canarian Nationalist Party 31,103 6.1 0
United Left 5,532 1.1 0
Union, Progress and Democracy 1,827 0.4 0
Others 9,265 1.8 0

2004 General Election

The PSOE had one of their best performances of the entire election here in 2004, gaining two seats and increasing their vote by 15.5%. This was their third biggest percentage increase anywhere. Only Ceuta and Melilla registered bigger increases and the results there were affected by the absence of third party candidates in 2004 who had polled well in 2000.

Summary of the 14 March 2004 Congress of Deputies election results in Las Palmas

 
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 208,995 42.21 4
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 167,926 33.92 3
Canarian Coalition (Coalición Canaria) 89,420 18.06 1
United Left 9,876 1.99 0
Others 12,871 2.60 0

Source:[6]

2000 General Election

Summary of the 12 March 2000 Congress of Deputies election results in Las Palmas.

 
Parties and alliances Votes % Seats Members elected
People's Party (Partido Popular) 210,774 48.05 4
Canarian Coalition (Coalición Canaria) 113,075 25.78 2
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) 80,695 18.40 1
United Left 10,941 2.49 0
Others 19,202 4.40 0

External links

References

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