Understanding the D’Hondt Law in Spain: How the Value of Votes Varies by Province

This is how the D’Hondt law works in Spain: the value of the vote may vary depending on the province

The general elections have already been held. Almost 40 million people were called to cast their vote at the polls and elect the next Government of Spain. With the polls becoming tighter between the bloc of the right and that of the left together with the peripheral parties, the parties called for mobilization with a special interest in activating the idea of ​​the “useful vote”.

With this tight scenario, both the PSOE and the Popular Party appealed to play with the system for their own benefit so that the votes for their respective blocs did not fall on deaf ears. This maneuver by the largest political parties responds to the way in which the electoral formula in which seats are assigned to each candidacy is designed.

Spain is divided into 50 provinces, which is the unit in which the territory is divided. Each one of them is assigned a certain number of seats to distribute according to the population that lives in the territory. As specified by law, in all provinces, at least two seats are distributed in the Congress of Deputies. From there, a greater number of deputies are added. At this point, it is essential to remember that Spain also has two autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla, where only one deputy is distributed.

The circumscriptions in which the greatest number of deputies are elected are Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In the capital, 37 representatives are at stake in the formations, in Barcelona 32 and in Valencia 16. On the other hand, in the places in Spain where fewer seats are decided, in addition to Ceuta and Melilla, there is Soria, which is the only province in all of Spain that distributes the minimum number of representatives established by law: two

Map of distribution of seats by provinces. Prepared by Europa Press Data.

A seat in the Cortes more –three– are distributed in the majority of the provinces of Castilla y León: Ávila, Palencia, Segovia and Zamora. A number that is repeated in Guadalajara, Huesca, Cuenca and Teruel. The so-called small provinces are those that distribute between three and five seats. In addition to those already mentioned, León, Lleida, Lugo, Rioja, Salamanca, Burgos, Cáceres, Albacete, Ourense and Álava would be missing, who play the game with four representatives, and Cantabria, Castellón, Ciudad Real, Badajoz:, Huelva, Navarra, Valladolid, Jaén, where the parties fight for five seats.

In the category of medium-sized provinces are those territories that send between six and ten deputies to the Congress of Deputies. Córdoba, Gipuzkoa, Girona, Tarragona, Almería and Toledo distribute six representatives. On the other hand, in Asturias, Zaragoza, Granada, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Zaragoza seven are fought, one less than in the Balearic Islands, Bizkaia, A Coruña, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where there are eight at stake. In Cádiz there are nine and in Murcia, ten.

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Finally, the largest constituencies are those that exceed ten seats to be distributed. Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia are joined in this group by the provinces of Alicante and Seville, which distribute 12 seats, and Malaga, which does the same with 11.

This method has sometimes been accused of benefiting the big parties. In the regional elections, the law establishes the aforementioned 3% barrier – the candidacies that are below are discarded – so, the first thing to be able to calculate the seats is to know the total votes. From the total number of ballots, it is possible to calculate what percentage of votes each political party has received.

Once the percentage of vote is established, the number of total valid votes is taken into consideration and divisions are made. That is, the votes obtained by each formation are divided into 2,3,4… Later, the highest quotients are selected to select the total number of seats to be distributed. For example, with the results shown in the graph, Party C would get one representative and parties A and B would get two representatives.

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