1984 Gibraltar general election
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All 15 seats in the House of Assembly 8 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||
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Gibraltar portal |
General elections were held in Gibraltar on 26 January 1984. The Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights (AACR) administration of Joshua Hassan was re-elected for a further term.
The election was referred to as the "dockyard election", as the future of the Gibraltar Royal Naval Dockyard was the only significant campaign issue.
Background
Under the constitution of 1969, in the 1980s the Gibraltar House of Assembly had seventeen seats, two held by official members appointed by the Governor of Gibraltar (the attorney-general and the financial secretary), and fifteen others elected at-large by the whole electorate in a single Gibraltar-wide constituency. A party or coalition winning eight seats in the Assembly had an effective majority and formed the government.[1]
The Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights (called in full the "Gibraltar Labour Party Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights") had been the dominant political force in Gibraltar since the Second World War, winning every election but one.[2] Hassan had been Chief Minister since 1964, apart from the three years between 1969 and 1972,[3] and the previous election, held on 6 February 1980, had produced a House of Assembly with eight AACR members, six from the opposition Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar, and one other, Joe Bossano, leader of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party. Despite his party's five other candidates all losing, Bossano had had a personal triumph, polling only sixty-four fewer votes than Hassan.[4]
Campaign
The election was called "the dockyard election",
Results
The turnout on 26 January 1984 was 74%,
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights | 42,260 | 44.39 | 8 | 0 | |
Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party | 32,534 | 34.18 | 7 | +6 | |
Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 17,967 | 18.87 | 0 | –6 | |
Independents | 2,433 | 2.56 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 95,194 | 100.00 | 15 | 0 | |
Total votes | 12,626 | – | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 16,960 | 74.45 | |||
Source: Parliament |
By candidate
The first fifteen candidates were elected to the House of Assembly.
Candidate | Party | Votes |
---|---|---|
Joshua Hassan | AACR | 6,644 |
Adolfo Canepa | AACR | 6,098 |
Joe Bossano | Socialist Labour Party | 5,899 |
Reggie Valarino | AACR | 5,160 |
Brian Perez | AACR | 5,051 |
Maurice Kenneth Featherstone | AACR | 4,997 |
Francis Jesus Dellipiani | AACR | 4,857 |
George Mascarenhas | AACR | 4,795 |
Horace John Zammitt | AACR | 4,658 |
Joseph Ernest Pilcher | Socialist Labour Party | 4,160 |
Michael Alfred Feetham | Socialist Labour Party | 3,934 |
Maria Isabel Montegriffo | Socialist Labour Party | 3,815 |
Juan Carlos Perez | Socialist Labour Party | 3,711 |
Joseph Louis Baldachino | Socialist Labour Party | 3,700 |
Robert Mor | Socialist Labour Party | 3,685 |
Joseph Michael Victory | Socialist Labour Party | 3,630 |
Peter Isola | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,946 |
Robert Peliza | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,804 |
Andrew J. Haynes | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,333 |
William Thomas Scott | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,130 |
Eric J. Hoare | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,061 |
Anthony Thomas Loddo | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 2,002 |
James Dominic Rosado | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 1,912 |
Anthony A. Carreras | Independent | 1,784 |
Cecil A. Isola | Democratic Party for a British Gibraltar | 1,779 |
David Cohen | Independent | 354 |
Charles J. Culatto | Independent | 295 |
Source: Parliament of Gibraltar |
References
- ^ Richard Green, ed., The Commonwealth Yearbook 2006, p. 415
- ^ Johannes Kramer, English and Spanish in Gibraltar (Buske Verlag, 1986), pp. 27–28
- ISBN 1438121393), p. 108
- ^ From Our Correspondent, 'Hassan party returned to power in Gibraltar' in The Times (London), issue 60545 dated 8 February 1980, p. 5
- ^ ISBN 1134910185), p. 123: "The single-issue nature of the election served to ensure that it assumed the character of a referendum on the proposals agreed between the British and Gibraltarian Governments to convert the naval dockyard into a commercial ship repair yard; a fact attested to by the election being dubbed the 'dockyard election'."
- ^ a b Richard Wigg, 'Dockyards deal with Britain dominates poll in Gibraltar' in The Times (London), issue 61748 dated 26 January 1984, p. 7
- ^ 'For the record: Narrow victory' in The Times (London), issue 61749 dated 4 February 1984, p. 6
- ISBN 0-415-34795-5), pp. 59–60