Voters were asked whether they ratified a proposed initiative for the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville to organize themselves into an autonomous community of Spain throughout the legal procedure outlined in Article 151 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

[1][2] However, the "Yes" vote failed to reach the required 50% majority in the province of Almería—garnering 42.3% of the electorate under a turnout of 51.1%—resulting in a deadlock of several months until an inter-party agreement resulted in legal amendments allowing the autonomy process to continue as envisaged under Article 151.

Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in the provinces of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.

[32][33] Poor progress on the issue of the Andalusian autonomy resulted in significant gains for the nationalist Socialist Party of Andalusia (PSA) in the 1979 general[34][35][36] and local elections,[37][38] as well as in a change of leadership in the pre-autonomic government, as Fernández Viagas was replaced by PSOE's Rafael Escuredo on 2 June 1979.

[45] By December 1979, 100% of the municipalities of the provinces of Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba and Jaén, 96.03% of Almería's, 94% of Huelva's, 93.37% of Granada's and 92.9% of Malaga's had approved the initiative for applying through the procedure of Article 151.

[55] Finally in January 1980, seeking to "rationalize" the autonomic process of all future autonomous regions over concerns that all would attempt to achieve maximum devolution within a short timeframe,[56] the UCD officially made public its stance not to support the route of Article 151 for regions other than the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia, instead suggesting the application of the "slow-track" route of Article 143;[57][58] a decision which included Andalusia.

[59][60][61] The date for the referendum on the autonomy initiative to be held was negotiated by the various parties with representation in the pre-autonomic Andalusian institutions, PSOE, UCD, PCE and PSA.

Originally scheduled for some point in late 1979, such as 25 October (concurrently with the Basque and Catalan Statute of Autonomy referendums) or 4 December (the second anniversary of the 1977 demonstrations),[62][63][64] the date was moved into early 1980, either on 28 February[65][66] or 1 March.

[69][70][71] Mounting pressure on the national government led to the approval of the Referendum Law in time for the Andalusian vote to be held as scheduled,[72][73][74] with plans maintained after UCD's rejection to support the autonomy initiative increasing the hardships for it to be successful.

[104][105] UCD and AP, defenders of abstention in the referendum, initially limited their campaigns to the use of their legal rights in the media—mainly their corresponding press, radio and television free spaces—to present their arguments contrary to Article 151.

[93][106] The only party campaigning for the "No" vote was the far-right New Force (FN), which claimed that the proposed autonomy was "marxist and separatist", instead advocating for an "agile and efficient administrative decentralization".