1983 Castilian-Leonese regional election
The 1983 Castilian-Leonese regional election was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 1st Cortes of the autonomous community of Castile and León. All 84 seats in the Cortes were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve other autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.
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All 84 seats in the Cortes of Castile and León 43 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 1,993,809 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 1,392,403 (69.8%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Constituency results map for the Cortes of Castile and León | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The election granted a victory for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) with 44.4% of the vote, but at 42 seats the party remained one seat short of an overall majority and at exactly half the size of the Cortes. The People's Coalition, an electoral alliance led by the right-wing People's Alliance (AP) and including the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Union (UL), became the second largest force in the community closely behind the PSOE, with 39 seats and 39.7%. Former Spanish prime minister Adolfo Suárez's Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) and the small Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) both entered the Cortes with two and one seats, respectively. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE), on the other hand, performed poorly, being unable to win any seats and obtaining 2.4% of the share.
Throughout the abstentions from CDS and PDL, the PSOE candidate Demetrio Madrid became the new regional president in a second round of voting, as the PSOE's 42 seats did not secure an absolute majority of seats to be elected in the first round. This would be the only time that the PSOE would go on to form the regional government, as well as the only out of two times—the other being in 2019—that the party would become the most voted political force in a regional election.