1983 Castilian-Leonese regional election

1983 Castilian-Leonese regional election

8 May 1983 1987 →
All 84 seats in the Cortes of Castile and León 43 seats needed for a majority
Registered	1,993,809
Turnout	1,392,403 (69.8%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Demetrio Madrid None/Various[a] Daniel de Fernando Party PSOE AP–PDP–PL CDS Leader since 12 February 1983 — 1983 Leader's seat Zamora — Ávila Seats won 42 39 2 Popular vote 608,604 543,851 81,741 Percentage 44.4% 39.7% 6.0%   Fourth party   Leader Francisco Montoya Party PDL Leader since 1983 Leader's seat Burgos Seats won 1 Popular vote 37,301 Percentage 2.7%
Constituency results map for the Cortes of Castile and León
President before election José Manuel García-Verdugo Independent (ex-UCD)[b] Elected President Demetrio Madrid PSOE

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.

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.^[2]

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.^[3][4] 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.

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