Main candidates
PSOE
Partido Socialista Obrero Español / Spanish Socialist Workers’ party
Pedro Sánchez
PSOE has been the main left-wing party since the return of democracy in 1977, but had been in decline until this spring’s election. Its recovery was not, however, enough to win it a majority in parliament.
PP
Partido Popular / People’s party
Pablo Casado
The Partido Popular had been the main centre-right party, but was seriously damaged by corruption scandals that eventually saw off its last prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
C’s
Ciudadanos / Citizens
Albert Rivera
Founded as a liberal, anti-corruption centrist party, and challenger to the PP, Ciudadanos has lurched to the right at recent elections.
UP
Unidas Podemos / United We Can
Pablo Iglesias
Another relatively new party, Podemos arose as a populist anti-austerity party, but drew in older parts of the radical left. It failed to come to an agreement with the PSOE to form a coalition of the left.
Vox
Santiago Abascal
A far-right party of very recent vintage, which first came to prominence in regional elections 12 months ago, and claimed 10% of the national vote in April.
Más País
More Country
Íñigo Errejón
Splitters from Podemos, Más País is a coalition of green-left and radical-left groups, in some areas mostly displacing Podemos.
ERC-Sobiranistes
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – Sobiranistes / Catalan Republican Left – pro-independence
Gabriel Rufián
Left-wing Catalan regional party at the forefront of the independence movement.
Others
EAJ – PNV – Euzko Alderdi Jeltzal, Partido Nacionalista Vasco, both meaning Basque Nationalist Party, a relatively moderate Basque party. Junts – Junts per Catalunya, Together for Catalonia, an alliance of strongly pro-independence groups associated with the exiled Carles Puigdemont. EH Bildu – Euskal Herria Bildu, Basque Country Unite, a leftwing Basque party. PRC – Partido Regionalista de Cantabria, Cantabrian Regionalist Party, from a hilly northern province. CCa-PNC – Coalición Canaria, Partido Nacionalista Canario – Canary Islands Nationalist party. NA+ – Navarra Más, Navarra Plus, a rightwing electoral pact between the PP and Citizens together with a local party in the partly-Basque speaking region in the north. Més Compromís – More Commitment, a Valencian flavour of Más País. ¡Teruel Existe! Teruel Exists, a campaign group for a rural province in the north-east. BNG Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Galician Nationalist Bloc, from the northwest region.
Leading party and distribution of seats per province
Sam Jones reports from Madrid
Spain’s ruling socialist party is once again on course to finish first in the country’s fourth general election in as many years, with the far-right Vox party set to vault into third place in the repeat poll.
The Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), led by the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is again expected to fall well short of a majority and perhaps lose some of its 123 seats.
With more than half the votes counted at 9.40pm, the PSOE was on 124 seats and the conservative People’s party (PP) on 85.
Fourth place was predicted to go to the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos with 35 seats, while the centre-right Citizens party seemed headed for a disastrous dip with only 10 seats.
Full report
