Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist party has won Sunday's parliamentary election, giving him another four-year term, official results showed Monday.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won 43.7 percent of the vote in the key election of the lower house of parliament, while the rival Popular Party (PP) led by Mariano Rajoy won 40.1 percent, official results after over 97 percent of the ballots were counted showed.
In the 350-strong lower house, the PSOE and the PP will take 169 and 154 seats respectively.
The country's two largest parties have both actually gained a stronger presence in parliament, further squeezing out regional parties.
The PSOE and the PP won 164 and 148 seats respectively in the 2004 election.
Zapatero addressed jubilant supporters in the PSOE headquarters in Madrid late Sunday night.
"Thanks to the people who gave a clear victory to the Socialist party," he said.
Zapatero vowed to continue his progressive social policies and vigorously defend constitutional values. "Today more than ever I believe in a diverse but united Spain."
He said Rajoy had congratulated him on the PSOE victory.
However, the PSOE would still fall short of an absolute majority in the house and will need to form a coalition government with regional parties.
Zapatero gained a surprise win in the 2004 election, held three days after terrorist bombings of Madrid commuter trains killed 191 people.
Zapatero's victory in 2004 was widely seen as voters' punishment of the then PP government's insistence that the bombings were carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA despite growing evidence that they were perpetrated by Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida.
Sunday's victory for Zapatero seems to be vindication of his policies over the past four years.
He legalized gay marriage and passed legislation to make divorce easier, moves which angered the PP. The Socialist government also devolved power to semi-autonomous regions.
PSOE Secretary General Jose Blanco said Sunday night that the election victory would put Zapatero in a better position to govern over the next four years and begin a new period of change and progress.
"It is a great victory," he said in a televised speech.
Sunday's elections were held in the shadow of Spain's slowing economy and ETA violence.
Both Zapatero and Rajoy's campaigning this year was heavily focused on the economy as the country is experiencing a sudden slowdown after three years of robust growth.
The bursting of the real estate bubble has put hundreds of thousands of jobs in danger, particularly in the construction sector, which is a big employer of immigrants.
Unemployment and inflation have been on the rise in recent months.
The country was haunted by ETA-style violence just two days before the voting.
On Friday, a former councilor from the ruling PSOE, Isaias Carrasco, was shot dead near his home in the Basque town of Mondragon.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the shooting, while the government has blamed ETA for the murder.
The assassination forced the political parties to curtail their election campaigns.
Source: Xinhua
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