At stake in this election:

• 208 seats in the Senate (Senado)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: King JUAN CARLOS I
• Head of Government: President of the Government Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO
• Assembly: Spain has a bicameral The General Courts (Las Cortes Generales) consisting of the Senate (Senado) with 259 seats and the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The King is the hereditary head of government.
• The President of the Government is elected by parliament.
• In the Senate (Senado), 208 members are elected by plurality vote in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 51 members are appointed by regional legislatures to serve 4-year terms. In the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) 350 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: People's Party / Partido Popular (PP)
  • Leader: Mariano RAJOY
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 121
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 152
• Party: Spanish Socialist Workers' Party / Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE)
  • Leader: Manuel Chaves GONZALEZ
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 104
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 169
• Party: Convergence and Union / Convergència i Unió (CiU)
  • Leader: Artur MAS i Gavarro
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 7
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 10
• Party: United Left / Izquierda Unida (IU)
  • Leader: Caryo Lara MOYA
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 1
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 1
• Party: Basque Nationalist Party / Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea (EAJ-PNV)
  • Leader: Inigo URKULLU
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 4
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 6
• Party: Galician Nationalist Bloc / Bloque Nacionalista Gallego (BNG)
  • Leader: Guillerme VAZQUEZ
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 0
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 2
• Party: Republican Left of Catalonia / Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC)
  • Leader: Oriol JUNQUERAS i Vies
  • Seats won in last Senate election: 4
  • Seats won in last Congress of Deputies election: 3

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 46,742,697 (2011)
• Registered Voters: 35,779,208 (November 2011)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 23,654,920 (2011)

·         Is Spain a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has Spain ratified CEDAW: Yes (5 January 1984)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 126 (Congress of Deputies); 88 (Senate) following the 2011 elections

·         Human Development Index Position: 26 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Very Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Spain a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007): 

·         Has Spain ratified CRPD: Yes (3 December 2007)

·         Population with a disability: 7,011,404 (est.)