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Since its transition to democracy in the late 1970s, Spain has been organized in a quasi-federal system called the "State of Autonomies". Each Autonomous Community is required by the Constitution to have its own three-branched system of government with its basic rules codified in a special law called a Statute of Autonomy, a sort-of regional constitution. Although there is no Constitutional requirement imposed upon regional elections other than that they must be based in proportional methods,^[1] all regional legislatures are unicameral, their members being elected in multi-member constituencies matching the provinces in the Autonomous Community with seats allocated to party lists using the D'Hondt method.

Autonomous Cities

The cities of Ceuta and Melilla are explicitly empowered by the Constitution to form Autonomous Communities on their own.^[2] Such provision was exercised by the respective City Councils in 1995, but not to its full extent: instead, the cities decided to adopt a regime between a normal city and a full-fledged Autonomous Community, with the main differences being:^[3][4]

• The Assemblies of Ceuta and Melilla assume all the powers of the old City Councils, with the new Mayor-President assuming the role of the old Mayor. In particular, meetings of the Assemblies are presided over by the President of the City instead of having a separate Speaker of the Parliament like most legislatures.
• Their legislatures are not allowed to pass primary legislation except on matters specifically allowed by the Spanish Cortes. Nevertheless, they are allowed to pass secondary legislation regarding matters far beyond the normal competences of cities in Spain.
• In compensation for not being able to pass their own primary legislation, Ceuta and Melilla can formally introduce legislation in the Spanish Cortes, a privilege not held by other cities, not even the capital Madrid.
• Elections to the cities' legislatures are fixed not to a certain date (like those of most Autonomous Communities), but to the date of the Spanish local elections. The writs are issued through a Royal Decree of the Spanish Government, while in all other Autonomous Communities (even in those with fixed election dates) it is the regional President who issues a decree dissolving the legislature and mandating elections to be held at the usually pre-fixed date.

City	Legislature name Local name	Members	Mayor-President Party	Last election Fixed
Ceuta	Assembly of Ceuta Sp. Asamblea de Ceuta	25	Juan Jesús Vivas Lara People's Party	28 May 2023 By Spanish law
Melilla	Assembly of Melilla Sp. Asamblea de Melilla	25	Juan José Imbroda Ortiz People's Party	28 May 2023 By Spanish law

Autonomous Communities

Except for Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia, which were created by a special fast procedure,^[5] most communities have very similar Statutes of Autonomy and election laws. Elections in those communities are fixed to a certain common date, which is currently "the fourth Sunday of May each four years",^[6] so regional Presidents cannot trigger a snap election nor select the final election date from a range of close dates. However, there have been occasions when the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly has been forced to call an out-of-sync election because the legislature was deadlocked in the President election. In those cases, the next election still takes place at the fixed common date, causing the new term out of the fresh elections to be shorter than normal: see President of Madrid#The 6th term scandal.

On the other hand, Presidents of communities created by the "fast procedure" can select the actual election date and trigger snap elections, and have frequently done so, particularly in the Basque Country and Catalonia. The Andalusian elections are usually set to coincide with the Spanish general elections, but again, there is no requisite to that effect in the Andalusian legislation.

Community	Legislature name Local names	Seat	Members	President		Last election Fixed
Andalusia	Andalusian Parliament Sp. Parlamento de Andalucía	Seville	109		Jesús Aguirre PP	19 June 2022 By President
Aragon	Aragonese Corts Ara. Cortz d'Aragón Sp. Cortes de Aragón	Zaragoza	67		Marta Fernández Martín Vox	28 May 2023 By President
Asturias	General Junta of the Principality of Asturias Ast. Xunta Xeneral del Principáu d'Asturies Sp. Junta General del Principado de Asturias	Oviedo	45		Juan Cofiño PSOE	28 May 2023 By law
Balearic Islands	Parliament of the Balearic Islands Cat. Parlament de les Illes Balears Sp. Parlamento de las Islas Baleares	Palma	59		Gabriel Le Senne Vox	28 May 2023 By President
Basque Country	Basque Parliament Ba. Eusko Legebiltzarra Sp. Parlamento Vasco	Vitoria-Gasteiz	75		Bakartxo Tejeria PNV	12 July 2020 By President
Canary Islands	Canarian Parliament Sp. Parlamento de Canarias	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	70		Astrid Pérez PP	28 May 2023 By President
Cantabria	Parliament of Cantabria Sp. Parlamento de Cantabria	Santander	35		María José González PP	28 May 2023 By law
Castile–La Mancha	Cortes of Castile-La Mancha Sp. Cortes de Castilla-La Mancha	Toledo	33		Pablo Bellido PSOE	28 May 2023 By law
Castile and Leon	Cortes of Castile and León Cast. Cortes de Castilla y León	Valladolid	81		Carlos Pollán Vox	13 February 2022 By President
Catalonia	Parliament of Catalonia Cat. Parlament de Catalunya Oc. Parlament de Catalonha Sp. Parlamento de Cataluña	Barcelona	135		Anna Erra JxCat	14 Feb 2021 By President
Extremadura	Extremaduran Assembly Sp. Asamblea de Extremadura	Mérida	65		Blanca Martín PSOE	28 May 2023 By President
Galicia	Parliament of Galicia Gal. Parlamento de Galicia Sp. Parlamento de Galicia	Santiago de Compostela	75		Miguel Ángel Santalices PP	12 July 2020 By President
La Rioja	Parliament of La Rioja Sp. Parlamento de La Rioja	Logroño	33		Marta Fernández Cornago PP	28 May 2023 By law
Madrid	Madrid Assembly Sp. Asamblea de Madrid	Madrid	135		Enrique Ossorio PP	28 May 2023 By law
Region of Murcia	Regional Assembly of Murcia Sp. Asamblea Regional de Murcia	Cartagena	45		María Visitación Martínez PP	28 May 2023 By law
Navarre	Parliament of Navarre Ba. Nafarroako Parlamentua Sp. Parlamento de Navarra	Pamplona-Iruña	50		Unai Hualde GBai	28 May 2023 By President
Valencian Community	Valencian Corts Val. Corts Valencianes Sp. Cortes Valencianas	Valencia	99		María de los Llanos Vox	28 May 2023 By President

References