Spain looks set for hung parliament - and a long period of uncertainty
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Leader of the People's Party Alberto Feijoo, centre, at a campaign rally in Madrid, Spain (Photo courtesy: Bloomberg)
Madrid: Spain's political picture looks in for a hung parliament as opposition right-wing People's Party (PP) won the country's general elections when 99.79 per cent of the vote have been counted, but fell short of an absolute parliamentary majority to form a government.
The results showed that the PP had won 136 seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, reports the BBC.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won 122 seats.
Vox won 33 seats, which means that a coalition with the PP would fall well short of the 176 seats needed for a majority in the lower chamber to form a government.
Meanwhile, the left-wing Sumar won 31 seats, meaning that a PSOE-Sumar coalition would also fall short of a majority. The scenario appears to create a long drawn out period of suspense of negotiations. In the absence of any clear winner of majority, the country's law requires another election to be held.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said that he would start conversations to form a government.
"I will open a dialogue and try to govern our country in accord with the results," said Feijoo from the balcony of the PP headquarters in Madrid late Sunday night.
"Spaniards know we have gone from being the second force to the party with the most votes... I hope this doesn't start a period of uncertainty in Spain."
The Basque nationalist parties Bildu and PNV won 6 and 5 seats respectively and the Catalan parties JuntsXCat and Ezquerra Republicana (ERC) took 7 seats each.
None of them are likely to lend their support to a possible PP/Vox coalition. Prospects for a coalition government now remain uncertain.
The 70 per cent voter turnout on Sunday was higher than in November 2019, despite the summer heat which saw many voters in swim suits and people using ballots as fans and in some places officials sitting outdoors.
The higher voter turnout was partly due to almost 2.5 million postal votes being cast, but polling stations were busiest in the morning before the heat took hold.
Voting numbers were buoyed on Sunday by 1.6 million young voters having the right to take part in the election for the first time.
(With inputs from agencies)