Andalucian Election Results
The elections to the regional parliament of Andalucia took place on 9 March 2008 and the outcome is now known. Although the status quo was largely maintained, there was a marked shift in voting which sets up the prospect of an historic win for the opposition in the not too distant future if they can consolidate and build on recent progress.
There are a total of 109 parliamentary seats in the chamber, representing the people of Andalucía’s eight provinces. Each province is allocated a minimum of eight seats, with the remaining 45 seats distributed amongst the provinces in line with population figures. More than 6.2 million people were eligible to vote in the 2008 regional election and, although slightly down on last year’s figure, turnout was high at 73.65%.
Depending on what ‘spin’ you want to put on the outcome of the election, the two main parties had cause for celebration.
Manuel Chaves’ PSOE-A (Partido Socialista Obrero Español de Andalucía) again managed to win an absolute majority with 56 seats and 48% of the popular vote. PSOE-A have won all eight elections in the Autonomous Community of Andalucia since elections began in 1981. Equally impressive is the fact that Manuel Chaves, who first became President of the Junta de Andalucia in 1990, has now had six straight victories at these elections.
As intimated earlier though, the PP-A (Partido Popular Andalucía) must feel quite satisfied with their progress. The party’s president, Javier Arenas, is a conservative heavyweight and a native of Andalucia. Despite this being the former Employment Minister’s third loss to Manuel Chaves’ PSOE-A, his influence is helping the PP-A gain support and they are clearly the party in the ascendency. The PP-A managed to increase their percentage of the popular vote from 32% in 2004 to 39% in 2008. While doing so, their number of parliamentary seats rose to 47 (up from 37 in 2004).
The polarisation of votes in the coinciding national elections was broadly reflected in the regional election, to the detriment of the smaller parties. Diego Valderas’ IULV-CA (Izquierda Unida Los Verdes Convocatoria por Andalucía) made no progress with the party retaining the 6 parliamentary seats won in 2004 (7% of the popular vote). Big losers of the election were definitely Julián Álvarez’s Coalición Andalucista, which lost all 5 seats that the Partido Andalucista previously held.
