The next election for the Parliament of Catalonia will take place on 27 September 2015.
The Parliament is the institution that represents the people of Catalonia.
The Parliament exercises legislative power, approves the budget of the Government of Catalonia and controls and promotes political and government action. It also has other powers conferred on it by law and in particular by the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.
The power to call an election for the Parliament of Catalonia rests with the President of the Catalan Government by a decree which sets the date of the election, the dissolution of the current Parliament, the number of members for each constituency, the length of the election campaign and the regulations applicable to the election process.
At present the Parliament of Catalonia has 135 members.
These 135 members are divided into four constituencies as follows:
- Barcelona, 85
- Tarragona, 18
- Girona, 17
- Lleida, 15
The members are elected by free, equal, direct and secret universal suffrage. In each constituency as many members are elected as required under the Statute of Autonomy.
The electoral system used is proportional representation. The d´Hondt method is the electoral formula used to distribute seats among the lists which have obtained at least 3% of the valid votes cast in the constituency.