Valencia (Spanish Congress electoral district)

Valencia (Valencian: València) is one of the 52 electoral districts (Spanish: circunscripciones) used for the Congress of Deputies—the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is the third largest district in Congress in terms of the numbers of deputies elected. From 1986 until 2015 it elected sixteen deputies out of the total number of three hundred and fifty. Since the 2015 general election it has elected fifteen members. Corresponding to the Province of Valencia, most of the electorate resides in the metropolitan area of Valencia which includes Valencia City and its satellite towns such as Torrent, Paterna, Mislata, Burjassot and Xirivella.^[1]

Overview

Boundaries and electoral system

Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution, the boundaries of the electoral district must be the same as the province of Valencia and, under Article 140, this can only be altered with the approval of congress.^[2] At the time of the 2008 election, the largest municipality, Valencia City, had 585,000 voters out of the total electorate of 1,900,000. The next largest municipalities were Torrent (56,000), Sagunto (49,000), Gandia (48,000), Paterna (44,000), Alzira (32,000) and Mislata (32,000). There are no other municipalities with electorates over 30,000.^[1]

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% of the total vote (which includes votes "en blanco" i.e. for none of the above) can be considered. Under article 12 of the constitution, the minimum voting age is 18.

Electoral procedures

The laws regulating the conduct and administration of elections are laid out in detail in the 1985 electoral law. (Ley Orgánica del Régimen Electoral General.^[3]) Under this law, the elections in Valencia, as in other districts, are supervised by the Electoral Commission (Junta Electoral), a permanent body composed of eight Supreme Court judges and five political scientists or sociologists appointed by the Congress of Deputies. The Electoral commission is supported in its work by the Interior Ministry. On election day, polling stations are run by electoral boards which consist of groups of citizens selected by lottery.^[4]

The format of the ballot paper is designed by the Spanish state, however, the law allows political parties to produce and distribute their own ballot papers, either by mailing them to voters or by other means such as street distribution, provided that they comply with the official model. The government then covers the cost of all printed ballot papers. These must then be marked by voters, either in the polling station or outside the polling station and placed inside sealed envelopes which are then placed inside ballot boxes in the polling station. Following the close of polls, the ballots are then counted in each individual polling station in the presence of representatives of the political parties and candidates. The ballots are then immediately destroyed, with the exception of those considered invalid or challenged by the candidates' representatives, which are retained for further scrutiny. The result is that full recounts are impossible.^[5]

Eligibility

Article 67.3 of the Spanish Constitution prohibits dual membership of both chambers of the Cortes or 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] Additionally, under Article 11 of the Political Parties Law, June 2002 (Ley Orgánica 6/2002, de 27 de junio, de Partidos Políticos), parties and individual candidates may be prevented from standing by the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo), if they are judged to have violated Article 9 of that law which prohibits parties which are perceived to discriminate against people on the basis of ideology, religion, beliefs, nationality, race, gender or sexual orientation (Article 9a), foment or organise violence as a means of achieving political objectives (Article 9b) or support or compliment the actions of "terrorist organisations" (Article 9c).^[6] Article 55, Section 2 of the 1985 electoral law also disqualifies director generals or equivalent leaders of state monopolies and public bodies such as the Spanish state broadcaster RTVE.^[3] Lastly, following changes to the electoral law which took effect for the 2007 municipal elections, candidates' lists must be composed of at least 40% of candidates of either gender and each group of five candidates must contain at least two males and two females.^[4]

Number of members

In the general elections of 1977, 1979 and 1982, Valencia returned 15 members. That figure was increased to 16 members for the 1986 general election and remained at that level until the 2015 General Election,^[7] when it was reduced to 15 members.^[8] It returned to 16 members for the 2016 General Election.^[9]

Under Spanish electoral law, all provinces are awarded an initial minimum of two seats, while the cities of Ceuta and Melilla must be single member districts. The remaining 248 seats are then allocated to provinces according to their population, ignoring the two minimum seats that they were awarded.^[10]

The practical effect of this law has been to over-represent smaller provinces at the expense of larger provinces like Valencia.^[5] In 2008, for example, Spain had 35,073,179 voters giving an average of 100,209 voters per deputy.^[11] In Valencia, however, the number of voters per deputy was 118,704,^[12] in contrast to the smallest provinces of Teruel and Soria where the ratio was 38,071^[13] and 38,685,^[14] respectively.

Seat summary (1977–2016)

General elections

2016

2015

2011

2008

2004

2000

1996

1993

1989

1986

1982

References

Coordinates: 39°20′N 0°50′W / 39.333°N 0.833°W / 39.333; -0.833