Catalan parliamentary election, 2006

Catalan parliamentary election, 2006

1 November 2006
All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	5,321,274 0.3%
Turnout	2,982,108 (56.0%) 6.5 pp
First party Second party Third party   170x170px Leader Artur Mas José Montilla Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Party CiU PSC ERC Leader since 7 January 2002 15 July 2006 25 November 1996 Last election 46 seats, 30.9% 42 seats, 31.2% 23 seats, 16.4% Seats won 48 37 21 Seat change 2 5 2 Popular vote 935,756 796,173 416,355 Percentage 31.5% 26.8% 14.0% Swing 0.6 pp 4.4 pp 2.4 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   170x170px 170x170px Leader Josep Piqué Joan Saura Albert Rivera Party PPC ICV-EUiA C's Leader since 4 September 2003 26 November 2000 9 July 2006 Last election 15 seats, 11.9% 9 seats, 7.3% Did not contest Seats won 14 12 3 Seat change 1 3 3 Popular vote 316,222 282,693 89,840 Percentage 10.7% 9.5% 3.0% Swing 1.2 pp 2.2 pp New party
350px Graphic of the results in the Catalan Parliament election, 2006, based in constituencies.
President before election Pasqual Maragall PSC Elected President José Montilla PSC

The 2006 Catalan parliamentary election was held on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, to elect the 8th Parliament of Catalonia, the regional legislature of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. At stake were all 135 seats in the Parliament, determining the President of Catalonia.

Electoral system

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected in 4 multi-member districts, corresponding to Catalonia's four provinces, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation. As the community did not have an electoral law of its own passed into law at the time of the 2006 election, the electoral system came regulated under the community's Statute of Autonomy rules, and subsidiarily, under the Spanish general electoral law (Organic Law 5/1985, of the General Electoral Regime). As a result of the lack of an autonomous electoral law, seats were allocated to districts through specific Laws or Decrees for each election. For the 2006 election, seats were distributed as follows: Barcelona (85), Girona (17), Lleida (15) and Tarragona (18).

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 3% of valid votes in each district (which includes blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

Background

The November 2006 Catalan parliament election was an early one (the original election date was due for the Fall of 2007, roughly one year after the actual early election took place). This was mostly a result of the uneasy and controversial redaction of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia amended text, which has further expanded the authority of the Catalan Government ever since it was passed in June 2006.

The Statute amendment was approved in a referendum on June 18, 2006 in which 73.24% of voters were in favour of the new Statute, 20.57% of the votes were against. This referendum was noted for its huge abstention: only 48.85% of the electorate participated in it.

Since the 2003 elections a coalition of three left-wing parties, Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens-United and Alternative Left (ICV-EUiA) had been in power, with Pasqual Maragall i Mira as President. However, in May 2006 ERC, following internal tensions, left the coalition due to its disagreement on the final draft of the Statute of Autonomy which themselves had partially redacted, thus leaving Maragall without a majority and forcing him to call for this early election. On June 21, 2006 Maragall announced his intention to personally step down at the upcoming election, arguably due to the political erosion his government had suffered after an uneasy relationship with ERC.

Besides the issue of Catalan nationalism, the main issues of the campaign were taxes, social security, housing and immigration.

Unlike the previous 2003 election, when Convergence and Union (CiU) achieved a plurality of seats in the autonomous Parliament but did not get the highest number of votes (PSC achieved a narrow lead in votes, the discrepancy between votes number and seats being explained by the electoral law) in this occasion CiU won the elections both in seats and votes numbers. Still those weren't enough to have an absolute majority. Then, after coalition negotiations, the PSC, ERC and ICV-EUiA agreed to renew the three-party coalition that had been in power, which made PSC's leader José Montilla President.

This election saw a new party (Citizens-Party of the Citizenry) entering the autonomous parliament, which has increased the already high diversity of this parliament from five political parties with representation to now six, which contrasts with the increasingly bipartisan Spanish -and European in general- politic scenario.

Parties

• Convergència i Unió (CiU, Convergence and Unity). Presidential candidate: Artur Mas. Union of the Catalan nationalist, fiscally liberal Democratic Convergence of Catalonia and the conservative Democratic Union of Catalonia.

• Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE). Presidential candidate: José Montilla. Social democratic. Affiliated to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

• Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia). Presidential candidate: Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira. Catalan republican and independentist, left-wing.

• People's Party (PP). Presidential candidate: Josep Piqué. The main party of the centre-right in Spain.

• Initiative for Catalonia Greens-United and Alternative Left (ICV-EUiA). Presidential candidate: Joan Saura. Green (eco-socialist) and radical left.

• Citizens-Party of the Citizenry (C's). Presidential candidate: Albert Rivera. Social democratic, social liberalist and non nationalist party.

Opinion polls

Vote

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	ERC	PPC	ICV	Oth.	Lead
1 Nov 2006	Regional Election	26.8	31.5	14.0	10.7	9.5	7.5	4.7
Exit polls
25 Oct	Demoscopia	29.1	32.1	14.9	11.6	9.5	2.8	3.0
23–24 Oct	Opina	30.0	30.5	13.0	10.0	10.0	6.5	0.5
23 Oct	Feedback	25.8	35.5	14.5	11.8	9.7	2.7	9.7
19–23 Oct	Noxa	28.4	34.0	12.5	10.2	10.9	4.0	5.6
22 Oct	Opina	30.0	30.0	13.0	10.5	10.5	6.0	0.0
19–21 Oct	GESOP	29.0	32.0	13.2	11.3	10.5	4.0	3.0
19 Oct	DEP	29.3	31.8	14.6	12.1	8.7	3.5	2.5
17–19 Oct	Iberconsulta	29.6	33.2	14.7	12.0	8.3	2.2	5.6
17 Oct	Opina	31.5	29.3	15.5	10.7	9.0	4.0	2.2
16 Oct	Feedback	27.4	35.9	15.0	10.1	9.1	2.5	8.5
2–15 Oct	CIS	27.8	33.7	14.8	10.2	8.9	4.6	5.9
9 Oct	Feedback	27.0	35.4	15.0	10.4	9.5	2.7	8.4
6–9 Oct	Sigma-2	30.5	32.8	13.7	11.0	6.9	5.1	2.3
5–9 Oct	Noxa	29.0	35.5	12.1	10.5	10.4	2.5	6.5
5–7 Oct	GESOP	29.9	34.9	12.4	10.1	9.1	3.6	5.0
18–21 Sep	Noxa	29.3	33.4	13.8	10.4	9.5	3.6	4.1
14–16 Sep	GESOP	29.5	34.5	13.3	10.5	9.0	3.2	5.0
17–19 Jul	Noxa	32.4	34.2	12.3	10.2	8.3	1.9	1.8
11 Jun	Opina	33.5	30.5				36.0	3.0
6–7 Jun	GESOP	31.0	35.0	13.0	10.5	7.0	3.5	4.0
30 May	Opina	33.8	31.2	13.1	9.8	8.9	3.2	2.6
15–16 May	GESOP	32.0	32.0	15.0	10.0	8.0	3.0	0.0
17–19 Apr	GESOP	31.0	32.0	16.0	10.3	7.4	3.3	1.0
27–30 Mar	Noxa	35.0	31.1	16.5	8.4	6.6	2.4	3.9
2–4 Feb	GESOP	30.7	31.5	14.8	12.9	7.5	2.6	0.8
2006
12–15 Dec	Noxa	31.7	32.8	16.3	9.6	8.9	0.7	1.1
7–11 Nov	Noxa	33.2	27.3	16.7	13.7	7.1	2.0	5.9
3–6 Oct	Noxa	32.5	29.2	16.0	12.7	8.9	0.7	3.3
3–5 Oct	GESOP	32.0	32.0	15.3	10.8	7.5	2.4	0.0
18–21 Jul	Noxa	33.5	28.9	16.3	12.9	7.2	1.2	4.6
30 Jun–3 Jul	GESOP	31.5	31.5	15.5	11.3	7.5	2.7	0.0
20–22 Apr	GESOP	30.3	30.3	16.2	12.6	7.8	2.8	0.0
7–10 Mar	Noxa	34.2	29.2	15.0	10.8	9.3	1.5	5.0
16–18 Jan	GESOP	34.7	31.6	13.9	10.4	7.0	2.4	3.1
2005
10–12 Nov	Noxa	32.4	28.9	16.8	10.8	9.6	1.5	3.5
28–29 Sep	Vox Pública	33.5	30.7	15.2	11.5	6.7	2.4	2.8
30 Jun–1 Jul	Vox Pública	34.0	30.5	15.7	9.8	7.5	2.5	3.5
13 Jun 2004	EP Election	42.9	17.4	11.8	17.8	7.2	2.9	25.1
14 Mar 2004	General Election	39.5	20.8	15.9	15.6	5.8	2.4	18.7
2004
16 Nov 2003	Regional Election	31.2	30.9	16.4	11.9	7.3	2.3	0.3

Seat projections

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

68 seats needed for majority

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	ERC	PPC	ICV	Others
1 Nov 2006	Regional Election	37	48	21	14	12	3
1 Nov	Ipsos-Eco	37−40	45−48	21−24	13−15	10−12	0−2
Exit polls
25 Oct	Demoscopia	40−41	47−48	20−22	14−15	10−12	0
23–24 Oct	Opina	42−43	43−47	19−22	13−14	13−14	0
23 Oct	Feedback	35−37	52−54	20−21	14−15	10−13	0
19–23 Oct	Noxa	38−40	50−52	17−19	13	13−15	0
22 Oct	Infortécnica	39−40	56−58	16−17	13−14	8−10	0
22 Oct	Opina	42−43	45	20	14	13−14	0
22 Oct	CiU	35−36	54	19−20	14	10−13	0
19–21 Oct	GESOP	39−41	47−49	19−20	14−15	12−13	0
19 Oct	DEP	38−39	49−50	20−21	15	10−11	0
17–19 Oct	Iberconsulta	40−41	47−49	20−22	14−15	10−11	0
17 Oct	Opina	43	43	23−24	13−14	12	0
16 Oct	Feedback	37	53−54	20	13−14	11	0
2–15 Oct	CIS	39	50−52	21	13−14	10−11	0
9 Oct	Feedback	37	52	20−21	13−14	12−13	0
6–9 Oct	Sigma-2	42−43	49−52	19−21	14−15	8	0
5–9 Oct	Noxa	38−40	52−54	16−18	13	12−13	0
5–7 Oct	GESOP	40−41	52−53	18−19	12−13	10−11	0
18–21 Sep	Noxa	40	50−51	19−20	13	12	0
14–16 Sep	GESOP	40−41	51−52	19−20	13−14	10−11	0
17–19 Jul	Noxa	44	51	17	13	10	0
11 Jun	Opina	46	45				0
30 May	Opina	48	46	20	12	9	0
27–30 Mar	Noxa	47−48	45−46	22−23	10−11	8−9	0
2006
12–15 Dec	Noxa	42−44	47−48	23−24	11−13	10	0
13 Dic	CiU	40	48	22	15	10	0
7–11 Nov	Noxa	46	39−40	23−24	17−18	8−9	0
3–6 Oct	Noxa	44	43	23	15	10	0
18–21 Jul	Noxa	46	41	23	15	10	0
7–10 Mar	Noxa	45−47	43−44	21−22	14	10−11	0
2005
10–12 Nov	Noxa	44	43	23	14	11	0
2004
16 Nov 2003	Regional Election	42	46	23	15	9	0

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 1 November 2006 Catalan Parliament election results →

File:Parliament of Catalonia election, 2006 results.svg
Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	935,756	31.52	0.58	48	2
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia-Citizens for Change (PSC-CpC)	796,173	26.82	4.34	37	5
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	416,355	14.03	2.41	21	2
	People's Party of Catalonia (PPC)	316,222	10.65	1.24	14	1
	Initiative for Catalonia Greens-United and Alternative Left (ICV-EUiA)	282,693	9.52	2.24	12	3
	Citizens-Party of the Citizenry (C's)	89,840	3.03	New	3	3
	The Greens-Ecologists of Catalonia (EV-EVC)	17,900	0.60	0.04	0	±0
	Anti-Bullfighting Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA)	13,730	0.46	New	0	±0
	Unsubmissive Seats (Ei)	6,922	0.23	0.16	0	±0
	Catalan Republic Party (RC)	6,024	0.20	New	0	±0
	Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI)	5,632	0.19	0.06	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	4,798	0.16	0.08	0	±0
	The Greens-Green Alternative (EV-AV)	3,228	0.11	0.05	0	±0

Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote		13,017	0.44	–	0	±0
	Family and Life Party (PFyV)	2,776	0.09	New	0	±0
	Forward Catalonia Platform (AES-DN)	2,735	0.09	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	2,608	0.09	0.04	0	±0
	Republican Social Movement (MSR)	1,096	0.04	0.02	0	±0
	Carmel/Blue Party (PAzul)	1,039	0.04	New	0	±0
	For a Fairer World (PUM+J)	945	0.03	New	0	±0
	Catalonia Decides (Decideix.cat)	668	0.02	New	0	±0
	Citizens for Blank Votes (CenB)	626	0.02	0.01	0	±0
	Republican Left-Left Republican Party (IR-PRE)	524	0.02	0.03	0	±0

	Blank ballots	60,244	2.03	1.12
Total		2,968,534	100.00		135	±0
Valid votes		2,968,534	99.54	0.20
Invalid votes		13,574	0.46	0.20
Votes cast / turnout		2,982,108	56.04	6.50
Abstentions		2,339,166	43.96	6.50
Registered voters		5,321,274
Source(s): Department of Interior and Institutional Relations Argos Information Portal

Vote share
CiU			31.52%
PSC-CpC			26.82%
ERC			14.03%
PPC			10.65%
ICV-EUiA			9.52%
C's			3.03%
Others			2.40%
Blank ballots			2.03%

Parliamentary seats
CiU			35.56%
PSC-CpC			27.41%
ERC			15.56%
PPC			10.37%
ICV-EUiA			8.89%
C's			2.22%

Results by province

Party			BC	GI	LL	TA	Total
	CiU	S	27	7	7	7	48
		V	29.9	38.2	40.0	32.4	31.5
	PSC	S	25	4	3	5	37
		V	27.9	22.1	22.0	26.0	26.8
	ERC	S	11	4	3	3	21
		V	12.6	19.2	17.7	17.6	14.0
	PPC	S	10	1	1	2	14
		V	11.2	7.2	9.1	11.0	10.7
	ICV-EUiA	S	9	1	1	1	12
		V	10.4	7.6	6.6	6.5	9.5
	C's	S	3	0	0	0	3
		V	3.5	0.9	1.0	2.4	3.0
	Others	V	2.5	2.8	1.3	2.4	2.5
	Blank		2.0	2.0	2.3	1.7	2.0
	Total seats		85	17	15	18	135
Turnout			55.9	57.1	59.0	54.1	56.0

Results by comarques

Comarque	CiU	PSC	ERC	PPC	ICV	C's	Lead	Turnout

Alt Camp	36.7	23.6	22.0	7.5	6.0	0.9	+13.1	58.2
Alt Empordà	37.1	22.5	18.0	9.6	7.1	1.2	+14.6	56.3
Alt Penedès	36.7	25.8	16.9	6.5	8.8	1.2	+10.9	62.3
Alt Urgell	44.2	21.2	16.3	7.0	7.4	0.6	+23.0	59.7
Alta Ribagorça	40.7	29.8	11.6	5.7	7.2	0.7	+10.9	57.1
Anoia	35.5	26.8	16.0	8.4	7.7	1.1	+8.7	56.4
Bages	38.9	23.9	17.8	6.6	7.9	1.0	+15.0	59.4
Baix Camp	33.3	23.5	18.1	11.6	6.6	2.8	+9.8	53.3
Baix Ebre	30.8	28.0	22.3	7.7	6.4	0.8	+2.8	56.4
Baix Empordà	36.7	24.7	18.6	6.9	7.6	0.9	+12.0	56.1
Baix Llobregat	24.1	35.0	10.3	11.5	10.5	4.0	−10.9	54.0
Baix Penedès	32.1	29.8	13.2	11.5	6.9	2.8	+2.3	49.0
Barcelonès	27.5	27.5	11.3	13.3	11.5	4.5	−0.0	57.4
Berguedà	43.6	20.6	20.8	4.5	5.8	0.4	+22.8	63.1
Cerdanya	45.2	16.2	19.5	7.7	6.0	0.7	+25.7	56.9
Conca de Barberà	38.8	26.0	17.8	5.4	7.1	0.3	+12.8	62.8
Garraf	30.1	28.7	13.5	10.5	9.8	3.1	+1.4	54.6
Garrigues	42.5	19.0	23.4	6.4	5.1	0.3	+19.1	65.8
Garrotxa	44.5	18.8	20.2	4.7	6.8	0.2	+24.3	63.4
Gironès	34.4	22.9	20.3	7.3	9.2	1.3	+11.5	59.2
Maresme	36.0	23.1	14.6	10.1	9.2	2.7	+9.9	57.9
Montsià	33.9	28.1	19.1	8.3	6.1	0.9	+5.8	55.4
Noguera	43.6	19.6	19.7	8.1	5.3	0.4	+23.9	63.1
Osona	44.7	15.4	23.6	4.4	6.9	0.4	+21.1	66.0
Pallars Jussà	42.5	26.7	15.5	4.6	7.4	0.2	+15.8	63.3
Pallars Sobirà	42.2	25.3	17.6	4.3	6.8	0.3	+16.9	66.5
Pla de l'Estany	42.5	13.8	25.9	4.6	7.8	0.5	+16.6	66.2
Pla d'Urgell	43.3	19.1	21.3	6.9	5.4	0.5	+22.0	65.9
Priorat	34.6	20.6	28.0	5.0	7.7	0.3	+6.6	70.6
Ribera d'Ebre	35.1	27.1	22.0	5.9	6.0	0.5	+8.0	66.0
Ripollès	47.4	19.7	17.6	4.3	6.0	0.1	+27.7	64.8
Segarra	42.5	15.5	21.5	8.4	7.1	0.3	+21.0	62.4
Segrià	36.2	24.7	15.1	11.7	7.2	1.7	+11.5	56.9
Selva	38.3	23.4	18.1	7.6	7.3	1.1	+14.9	53.1
Solsonès	45.8	13.6	23.4	6.2	7.1	0.2	+22.4	64.7
Tarragonès	29.2	26.8	13.8	15.0	6.8	4.3	+2.4	52.5
Terra Alta	42.0	25.2	15.5	10.2	4.0	0.4	+16.8	69.1
Urgell	42.2	18.1	22.0	7.1	6.3	0.5	+20.2	63.9
Val d'Aran	37.4	32.6	6.4	14.2	4.9	1.3	+4.8	53.1
Vallès Occidental	29.3	29.5	11.9	10.2	10.8	3.6	−0.2	54.1
Vallès Oriental	33.5	27.2	13.6	9.4	9.3	2.5	+2.1	56.2
Barcelona	29.9	27.9	12.6	11.2	10.4	3.5	+2.0	55.9
Girona	38.2	22.1	19.2	7.2	7.6	0.9	+16.1	57.1
Lleida	40.0	22.0	17.7	9.1	6.6	1.0	+18.0	59.0
Tarragona	32.4	26.0	17.6	11.0	6.5	2.4	+6.4	54.1
TOTAL	31.5	26.8	14.0	10.7	9.5	3.0	+4.7	56.0

Post-election

Investiture voting

24 November 2006 Investiture voting for José Montilla Aguilera (PSC) Absolute majority: 68/135
Vote	Parties	Votes
Y Yes	PSC (37), ERC (21), ICV (12)	70 / 135
No	CiU (48), PP (14), C's (3)	65 / 135
Abstentions		0 / 135
Source: Historia Electoral