SOCIALISTS have won the regional elections in Andalucía with 47 seats - the same as they earned in 2012 - but have failed to gain a majority, which means they will need to set up a coalition with another party.
Candidate Susana Díaz (pictured) won 35.43% of the votes, a total of just over 1.4 million, whilst the PP is out of contention with 33 seats after gaining just under 27% of the ballots.
Izquierda Unida (United Left) did the worst of all with five seats - seven fewer than in 2012 - and not even 7% of the votes, whilst Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) got just 1.93% of the ballots, leaving them without a single seat.
The same fate has befallen the independent outfit Partido Andalucista (PA), with 1.53%.
But two relatively new parties seeking to end 40 years of bipartisan rule - not only in Andalucía but in Spain as a whole - have seen an upsurge in popularity in the first regional election they have run for.
Podemos, led by 35-year-old political science lecturer Pablo Iglesias, netted nearly 15% of votes from left-leaning residents who are disillusioned with the socialists, and Ciudadanos - running for the first time outside of Catalunya, where it launched in 2006 - got 9.3% and was favoured by the more right-leaning public.
A total of 36% of those eligible to vote - Spanish nationals only - abstained, compared to 39.2% in 2012, meaning nearly 2.3 million people did not bother to cast their ballot yesterday (Sunday).
The remaining 64% - over four million - included 1.4% or 55,000 'blank' ballots in protest and 1%, or 41,000, which were considered null and void due to technical reasons.
Susana Díaz called the result 'an unquestionable historic victory' three years after the socialists fell from power in the region.
Candidate for the PP Juan María Moreno says the result was 'not what he expected' and warned that the regional Parliament will be 'much more fragmented' which would necessitate 'more dialogue, more listening and more seeking out compromises'.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com