2003 Catalan regional election

2003 Catalan regional election

← 1999 16 November 2003 2006 →
All 135 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia 68 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	5,307,837 0.3%
Turnout	3,319,276 (62.5%) 3.3 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Artur Mas Pasqual Maragall Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira Party CiU PSC–CpC ERC Leader since 7 January 2002 6 March 1999 25 November 1996 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona Last election 56 seats, 37.7% 52 seats, 37.9% 12 seats, 8.7% Seats won 46 42 23 Seat change 10 10 11 Popular vote 1,024,425 1,031,454 544,324 Percentage 30.9% 31.2% 16.4% Swing 6.8 pp 6.7 pp 7.7 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Josep Piqué Joan Saura Party PP ICV–EA Leader since 4 September 2003 26 November 2000 Leader's seat Barcelona Barcelona Last election 12 seats, 9.5% 3 seats, 3.9%[a] Seats won 15 9 Seat change 3 6 Popular vote 393,499 241,163 Percentage 11.9% 7.3% Swing 2.4 pp 3.4 pp
Election result by constituency
President before election Jordi Pujol CiU Elected President Pasqual Maragall PSC

The 2003 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 16 November 2003, to elect the 7th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.

This election marked a change for all Catalan political parties due to Catalan president Jordi Pujol's decision not to seek a seventh term in office and to retire from active politics. The election results were a great disappointment for Pasqual Maragall's Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), which again saw Convergence and Union (CiU) winning a plurality of seats despite them winning the most votes by a margin of just 0.3%. Opinion polls earlier in the year had predicted a much larger victory for Maragall, but his lead over CiU had begun to narrow as the election grew nearer. Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) was perceived as the true victor of the election, doubling its 1999 figures and scoring its best result in its recent history up to that point, both in terms of seats (23 of 135) and votes (16.4%), up from 11 seats and 8.7%.

As Pujol's successor Artur Mas did not win a majority large enough to renew his party pact with the People's Party (PP), which had kept Pujol in power since 1995, an alliance between the PSC, ERC and ICV–EUiA resulted in a Catalan "tripartite" government. Thus, despite losing 10 seats and 150,000 votes compared to the 1999 election, Maragall became the first centre-left president of the Government of Catalonia, ending with 23 uninterrupted years of CiU rule.
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