The results of the general elections that have been held this Sunday July 23 in Spain have revealed that PSOE and PP have not obtained a sufficient majority of votes to be able to govern comfortably. While the formation led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo has obtained 136 deputies, Pedro Sánchez’s party has obtained 122 seats. Hence, now the voters are wondering how the 350 deputies are distributed in each Spanish province and, finally, how the Cortes Generales will be formed, that is, the Congress and the Senate.
The experts made their pools before these elections were held on the distribution of votes and seats, taking into account the operation of the Spanish electoral system, based on the model of provincial constituencies. The objective of this is that there is a proportional distribution that prevents the least populated provinces from being less represented, something that is achieved thanks to the so-called Ley d’Hondt.
How many deputies are there in Congress?
The members of the Congress of Deputies in Spain are chosen through a system of proportional representation with closed lists in each province. This is made up of a total of 350 seats from 52 constituencies, which correspond to the 50 Spanish provinces, plus the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in accordance with Spanish electoral law.
Each territory starts with a minimum of two seats, while Ceuta and Melilla each have one: thus, 102 seats are assigned to Congress. But the remaining 248 deputies are completed proportionally to the population of law.
What is d’Hont’s Law and how does it work?
The objective of preventing the least populated provinces from being less represented in Congress is achieved through the application of the Ley d’Hont. The method was created by the Belgian jurist Victor d’Hondt in 1878, and allocates seats to lists in proportion to the number of votes received in each constituency.
In turn, it must be taken into account that in the least populated provinces, the parties need fewer votes to win a seat. According to this, while in Madrid 122,222 votes are needed to get a deputy, in Teruel 26,027 is enough. The 3.81 million voters in Madrid elected 37 deputies, and the 79,427 voters in Teruel elected three deputies. This means that, in a less populated province, the value of the vote is greater than in a highly populated one, which makes it easier for the former to have more seats than would correspond to them by number of inhabitants.
How many seats are there in the Senate?
For its part, the functioning of the Senate is different. Although coinciding with the lower house in that both represent the Spanish people, as established in the Constitution, the Senate represents it territorially and the Congress jointly. The 265 senators are chosen in two ways: 208 on open lists and the rest are appointed by the autonomous communities.
With regard to the distribution of the Senate, each province must select four senators, except in the archipelagos and autonomous cities, which elect 18 among all: Gran Canaria, Mallorca and Tenerife elect three each, Ceuta and Melilla elect two each, and Ibiza-Formentera, Menorca, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma each have one senator. The candidates with the most votes in each province are those who win a seat in the Upper House. Therefore, the system that is applied aims to have a balanced territorial representation, regardless of population density.
