A constitutional referendum was held in Spain on Wednesday, 6 December 1978, to gauge support for either the ratification or repealing of the Spanish Constitution which had been approved by the Cortes Generales on 31 October 1978. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Constitution Bill?" (Spanish : ¿Aprueba el Proyecto de Constitución?). The referendum resulted in 92% of valid votes in support of the bill on a turnout of 67%. [1] [2] [3]
The new constitution was intended to replace the many constitutional laws of the Franco era, the Fundamental Laws of the Realm, and turn Spain into a constitutional monarchy by removing many of the King's powers. The feat of creating a democratic system without breaking the structures of power of the state was made possible by the approval of the Political Reform Act of 1977, passed by the Francoist Cortes as the last Fundamental Law. It had been drafted by the President of the Cortes Españolas, Torcuato Fernández-Miranda (including changes that would replace the Cortes Españolas with a Cortes Generales), and supported by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and King Juan Carlos. The law provided for the legalization of political parties and a democratic election to Constituent Cortes, a committee of which then drafted the Constitution. [4]
Some Spanish media found up to 30% of irregularities in the census in certain provinces, with many people allegedly being unable to vote while others voted twice. [5] Adolfo Suárez's government had lowered voting age from 21 to 18 only three weeks before the referendum, which resulted in a made-up electoral register increasing by over 3 million people compared to the 1977 general election amid technical, administrative and logistical issues. [6] Interior Ministry officials acknowledged deviations of up to 5.1 per 100 in the electoral census—roughly 1.5 million people according to the National Institute of Statistics—resulting from the absence of an official electoral register and in an overreliance on data from municipal registers. [7]
Choice | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
For | 15,706,078 | 91.81 | |
Against | 1,400,505 | 8.19 | |
Total | 17,106,583 | 100.00 | |
Valid votes | 17,106,583 | 95.71 | |
Invalid votes | 133,786 | 0.75 | |
Blank votes | 632,902 | 3.54 | |
Total votes | 17,873,271 | 100.00 | |
Registered voters/turnout | 26,632,180 | 67.11 | |
Source: Ministry of the Interior [8] |
Region | Electorate | Turnout | Yes | No | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
Andalusia | 4,347,542 | 69.51 | 2,775,521 | 94.36 | 165,882 | 5.64 | |
Aragon | 894,403 | 73.58 | 579,734 | 92.90 | 44,287 | 7.10 | |
Asturias | 864,796 | 61.79 | 473,348 | 91.34 | 44,874 | 8.66 | |
Balearic Islands | 450,115 | 70.18 | 282,598 | 94.88 | 15,251 | 5.12 | |
Basque Country | 1,552,737 | 44.65 | 479,205 | 74.60 | 163,191 | 25.40 | |
Canary Islands | 879,963 | 62.90 | 508,668 | 95.46 | 24,174 | 4.54 | |
Cantabria | 374,559 | 71.15 | 222,559 | 87.01 | 33,232 | 12.99 | |
Castile and León | 1,950,813 | 71.37 | 1,184,361 | 90.28 | 127,545 | 9.72 | |
Castilla–La Mancha | 1,207,525 | 73.82 | 751,614 | 87.74 | 105,034 | 12.26 | |
Catalonia | 4,398,173 | 67.91 | 2,701,870 | 95.15 | 137,845 | 4.85 | |
Extremadura | 765,235 | 70.51 | 481,808 | 92.40 | 39,637 | 7.60 | |
Galicia | 2,107,613 | 50.20 | 942,097 | 93.84 | 61,892 | 6.16 | |
La Rioja | 192,597 | 72.46 | 120,847 | 91.70 | 10,940 | 8.30 | |
Madrid | 3,047,226 | 72.23 | 1,896,205 | 89.49 | 222,638 | 10.51 | |
Murcia | 630,268 | 71.44 | 408,722 | 93.59 | 27,975 | 6.41 | |
Navarre | 361,243 | 66.63 | 182,207 | 81.70 | 40,804 | 18.30 | |
Valencian Community | 2,545,481 | 74.14 | 1,676,680 | 92.72 | 131,664 | 7.28 | |
Total | 17,873,271 | 67.11 | 15,706,078 | 91.81 | 1,400,505 | 8.19 | |
Sources [8] |
The Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile of 1980 is the fundamental law in force in Chile. It was approved and promulgated under the military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet, being ratified by the Chilean citizenry through a referendum on September 11, 1980, although being held under restrictions and without electoral registers. While 69% of the population was reported to have voted yes, the vote was questioned by hundreds of denunciations of irregularities and fraud. The constitutional text took effect, in a transitory regime, on March 11, 1981, and then entered into full force on March 11, 1990, with the return to electoral democracy. It was amended for the first time in 1989, and afterward in 1991, 1994, 1997, each year from 1999 to 2001, 2003, each year from 2007 to 2015, and each year from 2017 to 2021, with the last three amendments concerning the constituent process of 2020–2022. In September 2005, under Ricardo Lagos's presidency, a large amendment of the Constitution was approved by parliamentarians, removing from the text some of the less democratic dispositions coming from Pinochet's regime, such as senators-for-life and appointed senators, as well as the armed forces' warranty of the democratic regime.
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government, is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister chairs the Council of Ministers and nominates its ministers; in these sense, the prime minister establishes the Government policies and coordinates the actions of the Cabinet members. As chief executive, the prime minister also advises the monarch on the exercise of their royal prerogatives.
Adolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez was a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected prime minister since the Second Spanish Republic and a key figure in the country's transition to democracy after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
The 1993 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 6 June 1993, to elect the 5th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 256 seats in the Senate.
The 1989 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 29 October 1989, to elect the 4th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 254 seats in the Senate. An election had not been due until 28 July 1990 at latest, but Prime Minister Felipe González called for a snap election nine months ahead of schedule, allegedly on the need of implementing tough economic measures. González hoped to capitalize on a still strong economy and his party's electoral success in a European Parliament election held in June, after a troubled legislature which had seen an increase of social protest on his government's economic policy and the calling of a massive general strike in 1988.
The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as la Transición or la Transición española, is a period of modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system, in the form of constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I.
The 1982 Spanish general election was held on Thursday, 28 October 1982, to elect the 2nd Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 254 seats in the Senate.
In the history of contemporary Spain, the death of caudillo Francisco Franco on 20 November 1975 marked the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy, the establishment of the parliamentary monarchy and the subsequent accession of King Juan Carlos I to the throne. In 1978, the current Spanish Constitution of 1978 was signed and the status of Spain's autonomous entities (autonomías) was defined.
The 1979 Spanish general election was held on Thursday, 1 March 1979, to elect the 1st Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 208 seats in the Senate.
The 1977 Spanish general election was held on Wednesday, 15 June 1977, to elect the Spanish Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 207 seats in the Senate.
A referendum on political reform was held in Spain on Wednesday, 15 December 1976, to gauge support for either the ratification or repealing of the Political Reform Act which had been approved by the Cortes Españolas on 18 November 1976. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Political Reform Bill?". The referendum resulted in 97.4% of valid votes in support of the bill on a turnout of 77.7%.
A referendum on the approval of the Basque Statute of Autonomy was held in the Basque Country on Thursday, 25 October 1979. Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country bill organizing the historical territories of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa into an autonomous community of Spain. The final draft of the bill had been approved by the Basque parliamentary assembly on 29 December 1978, but it required ratification through a binding referendum and its subsequent approval by the Spanish Cortes Generales, as established by Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
Puedo prometer y prometo is a classic catchphrase said by Spanish politician Adolfo Suárez, first said in the first post-Franco general elections in Spain in 1977.
A referendum on the approval of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy was held in Catalonia on Thursday, 25 October 1979. Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia bill organizing the provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona into an autonomous community of Spain. The final draft of the bill had been approved by the Catalan Assembly of Parliamentarians on 29 December 1978, and by the Congress of Deputies on 13 August 1979, but it required ratification through a binding referendum and its subsequent approval by the Spanish Cortes Generales, as established by Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The referendum was held simultaneously with a similar vote in the Basque Country.
The Political Reform Act was the Spanish law that re-established democracy and allowed the elimination of the governmental structures of the Franco dictatorship through a legal process. It is one of the key events in the Spanish Transition.
A referendum on the approval of the Galician Statute of Autonomy was held in Galicia on Sunday, 21 December 1980. Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed Statute of Autonomy of Galicia bill organizing the provinces of La Coruña, Lugo, Orense and Pontevedra into an autonomous community of Spain. The final draft of the bill had been approved following an inter-party agreement on 26 September 1980, but it required ratification through a binding referendum and its subsequent approval by the Spanish Cortes Generales, as established under Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
A referendum on the initiative of the Andalusian autonomy process was held in Andalusia on Thursday, 28 February 1980. Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed initiative for the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville to organize themselves into an autonomous community of Spain throughout the legal procedure outlined in Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
A referendum on the approval of the Andalusian Statute of Autonomy was held in Andalusia on Tuesday, 20 October 1981. Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia bill organizing the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville into an autonomous community of Spain. The final draft of the bill had been approved by the Andalusian Assembly of Parliamentarians on 1 March 1981, but it required ratification through a binding referendum and its subsequent approval by the Spanish Cortes Generales, as established under Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The referendum was held simultaneously with a regional election in Galicia.
A motion of no confidence in the Spanish government of Adolfo Suárez was debated and voted in the Congress of Deputies between 28 and 30 May 1980. It was brought by Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) leader Felipe González. The motion was announced by González during a parliamentary debate in the Congress of Deputies on 21 May and registered that same day, in a move aimed at obtaining a "moral censure" of the government that caught it and most deputies by surprise. Among the motives given to justify the motion's tabling were the alleged lack of a coherent political project in the government's programme for the construction of the democratic and autonomic state, its inability to tackle the economic situation of the country, its refusal to comply with agreements reached with other political projects or with non-law proposals passed by parliament and its growing parliamentary weakness.
General elections in Spain are the elections in which the citizens of Spain choose members of the Congress of Deputies and of the Senate, the two chambers of the Cortes Generales that represent the Spanish people. They are held every four years, unless a repeat or early election is called. Since the adoption of the Constitution of 1978, 14 general elections have been held in Spain. The most recent elections were held in July of 2023. Members of the Congress of Deputies are elected via a system of proportional representation. Members of the Senate are elected via a mixed system: some are elected via a majoritarian system and others are appointed by the legislatures of autonomous communities.