1985 Galician regional election

1985 Galician regional election

24 November 1985
All 71 seats in the Parliament of Galicia 36 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,226,449 2.4%
Turnout	1,277,897 (57.4%) 11.1 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gerardo Fernández Albor Fernando González Laxe Pablo González Mariñas Party AP–PDP–PL–CdG PSdG–PSOE CG Leader since 1981 19 June 1985 23 July 1985 Leader's seat La Coruña La Coruña La Coruña Last election 26 seats, 30.5% 16 seats, 19.6% Did not contest Seats won 34 22 11 Seat change 8 6 11 Popular vote 516,218 361,946 163,425 Percentage 40.9% 28.7% 12.9% Swing 10.4 pp 9.1 pp New party   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Camilo Nogueira Xosé Manuel Beiras Party PSG–EG BNG Leader since 1980 1982 Leader's seat Pontevedra La Coruña Last election 1 seat, 3.4% 3 seats, 6.3% Seats won 3 1 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 71,599 53,072 Percentage 5.7% 4.2% Swing 2.3 pp 2.1 pp
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Galicia
President before election Gerardo Fernández Albor AP–PDP–PL–CdG President after election Gerardo Fernández Albor AP–PDP–PL–CdG

A regional election was held in Galicia on 24 November 1985 to elect the 2nd Parliament of the autonomous community. All 71 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

Overview

Under the 1981 Statute of Autonomy, the Parliament of Galicia was the unicameral legislature of the homonymous autonomous community, having legislative power in devolved matters, as well as the ability to grant or withdraw confidence from a regional president. The electoral and procedural rules were supplemented by national law provisions.

Date

The term of the Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than 25 days before the scheduled expiration date of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place between 54 and 60 days after the decree's publication. The previous election was held on 20 October 1981, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 20 October 1985. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 26 September 1985, setting the latest possible date for election day on 25 November 1985.

The Parliament of Galicia could not be dissolved before the expiration date of parliament, except in the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional president within a two-month period from the first ballot. In such a case, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a snap election called.

The election to the Parliament of Galicia was officially called on 26 September 1985 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the DOG, setting election day for 24 November and scheduling for the chamber to reconvene on 17 December.

Electoral system

Voting for the Parliament is based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Galicia and with full political rights, provided that they have not been deprived of the right to vote by a final sentence, nor were legally incapacitated.

The Parliament of Galicia had a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 80 seats, with electoral provisions fixing its size at 71. All were elected in four multi-member constituencies—corresponding to the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, each of which was assigned a fixed number of seats—using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a three percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each constituency. The use of this electoral method resulted in a higher effective threshold depending on district magnitude and vote distribution.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Parliament constituency was entitled the following seats:

Seats	Constituencies
22	La Coruña
19	Pontevedra
15	Lugo, Orense

The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.

Outgoing parliament

The table below shows the composition of the parliamentary groups in the chamber at the time of dissolution.

Parliamentary composition in September 1985

Groups		Parties		Legislators
				Seats	Total
	People's Alliance of Galicia Parliamentary Group		AP	26	26
	Socialists of Galicia's Parliamentary Group		PSdG–PSOE	16	16
	Galician Coalition Parliamentary Group		CG	10	10
	Independents' Parliamentary Group		PDP	1	8
			INDEP	7
	Centrist of Galicia Parliamentary Group		CdG	5	5
	Mixed Parliamentary Group		UPG	2	5
			PSG–EG	2
			PCE–PCG	1

Opinion polls

The tables below list opinion polling results in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a poll.

Voting intention estimates

The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 36 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Galicia.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout				BNG					CG	Lead
1985 regional election	24 Nov 1985	—N/a	57.4		–	28.7 22	4.2 1	5.7 3	0.8 0	3.3 0	40.9 34	12.9 11	12.2
Alef/El País	13–14 Nov 1985	1,200	?		–	30.6 23/25	6.1 2/3	4.9 2	1.0 0	7.5 4	40.0 32/34	8.1 5/6	9.4
Aresco/ABC	4–8 Nov 1985	1,050	?		–	28.8 21/25	4.2 0/2	4.9 0/3	2.0 0	6.6 2/5	41.3 35/40	7.1 3/7	12.5
Alef/El País	23–25 Oct 1985	1,000	64.7		–	31.9 23/27	6.0 3	–	2.0 2	7.3 3/4	40.0 32/36	7.3 4/5	8.1
Sofemasa/CEOE	24 Jun–7 Jul 1985	1,865	?		–	31.9 27	2.9 0	3.5 2	1.0 0	3.5 1	45.1 38	5.9 3	13.2
Typol/AP	18 Sep–9 Oct 1984	2,003	65.5		–	33.5 26/28	6.2 1/3	3.5 1/2	2.7 0	3.7 1	38.9 30/34	9.2 6/8	5.4
1982 general election	28 Oct 1982	—N/a	63.7	37.6 (31)	17.7 (15)	32.8 (25)	3.0 (0)	1.7 (0)	1.5 (0)	2.6 (0)	–	–	4.8
1981 regional election	20 Oct 1981	—N/a	46.3	30.5 26	27.8 24	19.6 16	6.3 3	3.4 1	2.9 1	–	–	–	2.7

Results

Overall

← Summary of the 24 November 1985 Parliament of Galicia election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Coalition (AP–PDP–PL–CdG)1	516,218	40.89	+10.37	34	+8
	Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdG–PSOE)	361,946	28.67	+9.05	22	+6
	Galician Coalition (CG)	163,425	12.94	New	11	+11
	Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left (PSG–EG)2	71,599	5.67	+2.27	3	+2
	Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)3	53,072	4.20	−2.07	1	−2
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	41,411	3.28	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of Galicia (PCE–PCG)	10,625	0.84	−2.09	0	−1
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	9,689	0.77	−1.08	0	±0
	Communist Party of Galicia (Revolutionary Marxist) (PCG (m–r))	8,318	0.66	New	0	±0
	Humanist Platform (PH)	7,280	0.58	New	0	±0
	Galician Party of the Country (PGC)	3,172	0.25	New	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	2,922	0.23	+0.08	0	±0
	Communist Party of Spain (Marxist–Leninist) (PCE (m–l))	1,554	0.12	±0.00	0	±0
	Galician Socialist Unity (USG)	1,379	0.11	−1.18	0	±0
	Communist Movement of Galicia (MCG)	1,327	0.11	−0.38	0	±0
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	n/a	n/a	−27.80	0	−24
Blank ballots		8,627	0.68	+0.68
Total		1,262,564			71	±0
Valid votes		1,262,564	98.80	+0.79
Invalid votes		15,333	1.20	−0.79
Votes cast / turnout		1,277,897	57.40	+11.12
Abstentions		948,552	42.60	−11.12
Registered voters		2,226,449
Sources
Footnotes: 1 People's Coalition results are compared to People's Alliance totals in the 1981 election. 2 Galician Socialist Party–Galician Left results are compared to Galician Left totals in the 1981 election. 3 Galician Nationalist Bloc results are compared to Galician National-Popular Bloc–Galician Socialist Party totals in the 1981 election.

Popular vote

CP			40.89%
PSdG–PSOE			28.67%
CG			12.94%
PSG–EG			5.67%
BNG			4.20%
CDS			3.28%
Others			3.66%
Blank ballots			0.68%

Seats

CP			47.89%
PSdG–PSOE			30.99%
CG			15.49%
PSG–EG			4.23%
BNG			1.41%

Distribution by constituency

Constituency	CP		PSdG		CG		PSG–EG		BNG
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S
La Coruña	38.0	10	32.3	8	9.9	2	5.7	1	5.2	1
Lugo	44.9	8	24.4	4	20.4	3	2.0	–	3.3	–
Orense	40.1	7	25.7	4	22.8	4	3.0	–	3.0	–
Pontevedra	43.0	9	27.4	6	8.9	2	8.6	2	3.9	–
Total	40.9	34	28.7	22	12.9	11	5.7	3	4.2	1
Sources

Aftermath

Government formation

Investiture Nomination of Gerardo Fernández Albor (AP)
Ballot →		16 January 1986	17 January 1986
Required majority →		36 out of 71 N	Simple N
	Yes • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (34)	34 / 71	34 / 71
	No • PSdG (22) • CG (11) • PSG–EG (3) • BNG (1)	37 / 71	37 / 71
	Abstentions	0 / 71	0 / 71
	Absentees	0 / 71	0 / 71
Sources

Investiture Nomination of Gerardo Fernández Albor (AP)
Ballot →		20 February 1986	21 February 1986
Required majority →		36 out of 71 N	Simple Y
	Yes • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (34) (33 on 20 Feb)	33 / 71	34 / 71
	No • PSdG (22) • PSG–EG (3) • BNG (1)	26 / 71	26 / 71
	Abstentions • CG (11) (10 on 20 Feb)	10 / 71	11 / 71
	Absentees • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (1) (on 20 Feb) • CG (1) (on 20 Feb)	2 / 71	0 / 71
Sources

1987 motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence Nomination of Fernando González Laxe (PSdG)
Ballot →		23 September 1987
Required majority →		36 out of 71 Y
	Yes • PSdG (22) • CG–UDG (10) • PNG (5) • PSG–EG (3)	40 / 71
	No • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (29)	29 / 71
	Abstentions • AP–PDP–PL–CdG (1) • BNG (1)	2 / 71
	Absentees	0 / 71
Sources

References

Opinion poll sources

Other

Bibliography

• Ley Orgánica 1/1981, de 6 de abril, de Estatuto de Autonomía para Galicia (Organic Law 1/1981). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 6 April 1981 [version as of 28 April 1981]. BOE-A-1981-9564. Retrieved 17 May 2026.
• Ley 1/1983, de 22 de febrero, reguladora de la Junta y su Presidente (Law 1/1983). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 22 February 1983 [version as of 21 March 1983]. BOE-A-1983-23788. Retrieved 17 May 2026.
• Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General (Organic Law 5/1985). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 19 June 1985 [version as of 20 June 1985]. BOE-A-1985-11672. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
• Ley 8/1985, de 13 de agosto, de elecciones al Parlamento de Galicia (Law 8/1985). Official State Gazette (in Spanish). 13 August 1985 [version as of 16 August 1985]. BOE-A-1985-21380. Retrieved 17 May 2026.
• Decreto 194/1985, do 25 de setembro, polo que se convocan eleccións ó Parlamento de Galicia (PDF) (Decree 194/1985). Official Journal of Galicia (in Galician). 25 September 1985. Retrieved 6 June 2026.