The Cortes Generales represent the Spanish people, exercise the legislative power of the State, approve its budgets and control the Government’s action.
They comprise the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.
How many deputies make up the Congress?
There are 350 deputies.
They are distributed as follows:
Each of the fifty provinces has an initial minimum of two deputies. The cities of Ceuta and Melilla elect one each.
The remaining 248 are distributed among the fifty provinces in proportion to their population. The decree calling the election specifies the number of deputies to be elected in each province.
How are the deputies elected?
All the deputies are elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage.
Each province elects as many deputies as are required by the decree to call the election.
The political parties present their candidates on closed and blocked lists, in such a way that, on election day, voters cannot select individual candidates or alter the order of the lists; they will choose the ballot paper of the chosen party and place it in the appropriate envelope.
When will the new Congress of Deputies be formed?
The deadline for forming the new Congress is 25 days after the election.