A constitutional referendum was held in Spain on Wednesday, 6 December 1978, for approval or rejection of the proposed Spanish Constitution. The new constitution had been approved by the Cortes Generales on 31 October 1978, with the provision that the new law had to be approved by Spanish voters as well. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Constitution Bill?" (Spanish: ¿Aprueba el Proyecto de Constitución?). The referendum resulted in 92% of valid votes in support of the bill on a turnout of 67%.
Purpose
The new constitution was intended to replace the many constitutional laws of the Franco era, the Fundamental Laws of the Realm, and turn Spain into a constitutional monarchy by removing many of the King's powers. The feat of creating a democratic system without breaking the structures of power of the state was made possible by the approval of the Political Reform Law, passed by the Francoist Cortes as the last Fundamental Law in 1977. It had been drafted by the President of the Cortes Españolas, Torcuato Fernández-Miranda (including changes that would replace the Cortes Españolas with a Cortes Generales), and supported by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez and King Juan Carlos I. The law provided for the legalization of political parties and a democratic election to Constituent Cortes, a committee of which then drafted the Constitution.
Conduct
Some Spanish media found an irregularity rate of up to 30% in the census in certain provinces, with many people allegedly being unable to vote while others voted twice. Adolfo Suárez's government had lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 only three weeks before the referendum, which resulted in a made-up electoral register increasing by over 3 million people compared to the 1977 general election amid technical, administrative and logistical issues. Interior Ministry officials acknowledged deviations of up to 5.1 per 100 in the electoral census—roughly 1.5 million people according to the National Institute of Statistics—resulting from the absence of an official electoral register and an overreliance on data from municipal registers.