BBC reports that the incumbent Socialists appear to have won reelection in Spain’s general election today, though not absolute majority. Projections from exit polls and preliminary results say about 168 164 seats,1 which would leave them just short. (Spain has had many minority governments, with either of the two leading parties able to govern by cooperating with various regional parties.)
Various news reports I had seen over the past week anticipated the party would not win enough seats to govern alone, but many of these news items also suggested that high turnout would favor the Socialists. An earlier BBC report today had reported that turnout was indeed high.
- Yet another recent update again says 168. We’ll know soon. [↩]
Didn’t Sri Lanka also have an apportionment system for its National Assembly whereby each province started with an equal four seats and then remaining seats were added on (not topped up) based on population?
It seems ironic that Sri Lanka and Spain, two nations that – despite some constitutionally entrenched degree of decentralisation – are not considered to be federations, should give less populous sub-units greater representation in the national lower (or only) house than do self-described federations such as Switzerland, the US and Australia. The latter assign each sub-unit (a) “percentage of seats based on population quotients” OR (b) “a flat number” (one in Switzerland/ US, five in Australia), whichever is greater – whereas Spain and Sri Lanka add together the flat number and the proportionate to population number.
Seed planted by Tom Round — 11 March 2008 @ 06:17