Spain

On 23 July, general elections were held in Spain. The results are as follows:

Electoral results

People's Party: 8,091,840 votes, 33.05%, 136 seats
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party: 7,760,970 votes, 31.70%, 122 seats
Vox: 3,033,744 votes, 12.39%, 33 seats
Unite: 3,014,006 votes, 12.31%, 31
Republican Left of Catalonia: 462,883 votes, 1.89%, 7 seats
Together for Catalonia: 392,634 votes, 1.60%, 7 seats
Basque Country Gather: 333,362 votes, 1.36%, 6 seats
Basque Nationalist Party: 275,782 votes, 1.13%, 5 seats
Animalist Party with the Environment: 165,768 votes,0.68%, 0 seats
Galician Nationalist Bloc: 152,327 votes, 0.62%, 1 seat
Canarian Coalition: 114,718 votes, 0.47%, 1 seat
Popular Unity Candidacy–For Rupture: 98,794 votes, 0.40%, 0 seats
Navarrese People's Union : 51,764 votes, 0.21%, 1 seat
Source: General elections July 2023


About the electoral system

The Spanish Cortes Generales were conceived as an imperfect two-chamber system. Within this setup, the Congress of Deputies held more significant legislative authority compared to the Senate. It could express confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister, and it had the ability to override Senate vetoes through an absolute majority vote. Nevertheless, the Senate had a limited number of exclusive functions, such as its involvement in constitutional amendments, which were not subject to Congress' veto. The voting process for the Cortes Generales was based on universal suffrage, encompassing all citizens above 18 years old who possessed their full political rights. In 2022, changes to the electoral law eliminated the "begged" or expatriate vote system (referred to as "voto rogado" in Spanish). This system had required Spanish citizens abroad to apply for voter registration before being allowed to vote. The expat vote system was blamed for a significant decline in the voter turnout of overseas Spaniards during the period it was in effect. As for the Congress of Deputies, a total of 348 seats were filled through the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation system. An electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes, including blank ballots, was applied in each constituency. Seats were assigned to constituencies corresponding to Spain's provinces. Each constituency was initially allocated a minimum of two seats, with the remaining 248 seats distributed in proportion to their populations. The two remaining seats were assigned to Ceuta and Melilla, which were chosen through plurality voting. The application of the D'Hondt method could potentially lead to a higher effective threshold, depending on the size of the district.

Selected articles

General election results in Spain leave future of next government up in the air, 24 July, (Euronews)

Spain election 2023: full results, 24 July, (The Guardian)

Spain election: Conservatives win but fall short of majority, 23 July, (Deutsche Welle)