Galician regional election, 1981

Galician regional election, 1981

20 October 1981 1985 →
All 71 seats in the Parliament of Galicia 36 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,174,246
Turnout	1,006,222 (46.3%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Xerardo Fernández Albor Xosé Quiroga Suárez Francisco Vázquez Party AP UCD PSdG–PSOE Leader since 1981 9 June 1979 1980 Leader's seat La Coruña Orense La Coruña Seats won 26 24 16 Popular vote 301,039 274,191 193,456 Percentage 30.5% 27.8% 19.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Bautista Álvarez Camilo Nogueira Anxo Guerreiro Party BNPG–PSG EG PCE–PCG Leader since 1977 1980 1979 Leader's seat La Coruña Pontevedra La Coruña Seats won 3 1 1 Popular vote 61,870 33,497 28,927 Percentage 6.3% 3.4% 2.9%
Constituency results map for the Parliament of Galicia
President before election Xosé Quiroga Suárez UCD Elected President Xerardo Fernández Albor AP

Xosé Quiroga Suárez
UCD

Xerardo Fernández Albor
AP

The 1981 Galician regional election was held on Tuesday, 20 October 1981, to elect the 1st Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Galicia. All 71 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a constitutional referendum in Andalusia.

Despite predictions pointing that the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), the then-ruling party in Spain, would maintain the hegemony it had obtained in the general elections of 1977 and 1979, the party came a close second after Manuel Fraga's People's Alliance (AP), which won the election with slightly over 30% of the vote and 26 seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) fared better that in the general elections, but did not obtain the expected gains, with just below 20% of the vote and 16 seats.

After the election, an agreement between the two most-voted parties allowed Xerardo Fernández Albor from AP to be elected President of the Xunta, as head of a minority cabined with the external support of the UCD.

The Galician election of 1981 marked the beginning of the end for the Union of the Democratic Centre as a relevant political force in Spanish politics, confirming its ever more dwindling support among voters and AP's growth at its expense. The 1982 Andalusian election held seven months later would suppose another blow to UCD, accelerating the internal decomposition of the party into the next general election.