[3][4] Results for the Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD) alliance were seen as disappointing, having lost many votes to Pujol's coalition and being shut from any chance to lead the regional government.

[5][6] The complicated parliamentary arithmetic resulting from the election—with the only alliances able to command an absolute majority being CiU–PSC (76 seats), CiU–UCD–ERC (75) and PSC–PSUC–ERC (72)—raised concerns on Pujol's prospects for a successful investiture.

Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in Catalonia and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.

The 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency.

[15][16] However on 17 January, after deliberations by the Executive Council and in agreement with the State Government, President Tarradellas called an election for Thursday, 20 March 1980.

[24][25] After being ratified in referendum it would obtain the final approval of the Cortes and published in the Official State Gazette on 22 December, paving the way for the first Catalan regional election since the Second Spanish Republic to be held.

[38][39][40] Tensions resulting from the merger would be common during the ensuing years, and in late 1979 political and organizational discrepancies between the various factions within the unified PSC–PSOE led to an internal crisis,[41][42][43] which had led party leader and prospective leading candidate Joan Reventós to threaten with his resignation should the crisis not be resolved ahead of the incoming Catalan regional election.

[48][49][50] This attempt would not succeed,[51] with Tarradellas ending up forfeiting his re-election bid after a final, last-ditch attempt to form a candidacy made of independents in February 1980,[52][53][54] but it would provide the basis for the long-term Convergence and Union (CiU) alliance formed between CDC and UDC,[55][56] as well as for the constitution of Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD), a merger of UCD and UDCA which had also included UCC in its first years.

[57][58][59] Negotiations for the formation of CiU had been underway between CDC and UDC throughout August 1978 and were formalized on September that year, aiming at establishing a big tent alliance of Catalan nationalist parties that could appeal both to centre-left and centre-right voters.

[75][76] About 2,100 candidates from 16 political parties stood for election, with eleven candidacies running in all four provinces: the main parties PSC, UCD, PSUC, CiU, ERC and PSA, as well as the Left Nationalists (NE), the Unity for Socialism (CUPS) alliance, New Force (FN), the Left Bloc for National Liberation (BEAN) and the Communist Unity (UC).

[85][86] Instead, the PSC–PSOE secured 22.4% of the vote and 33 seats, losing many votes compared to the previous 1979 general election in what was seen as an electoral punishment to the PSC's ambiguous position on the issue of Catalan nationalism—said to have cost it the support from Catalan centre-left bourgeoisie voters, losing them both to the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) (which obtained 18.8% of the vote and 25 seats) and to the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) (8.9% of the share and 14 seats)—but also to the ongoing internal tensions between the more pro-Catalan faction made of former Socialist Party of Catalonia–Congress members and the more pro-Spanish faction from the former Catalan Socialist Federation, as well as Joan Reventós's little appeal among working class voters.

[4][5] Incumbent President Josep Tarradellas was said to have cast a blank ballot, after his attempts to run for re-election proved unsuccessful amid his growing mistrust of Catalan political parties.

[6][87] Eventually, these would be joined by disappointment over the dismal turnout at the 1980 Galician Statute of Autonomy referendum and further electoral setbacks in the November 1980 Senate by-elections in Almería and Seville, with the deterioration of Adolfo Suárez's public figure leading to increasing internal struggling within the party and to his resignation as Prime Minister in January 1981.

[89] Under Transitory Provision Fifth of the Statute, the first investiture process to elect the president of the Government of Catalonia required of an absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—to be obtained in the first ballot.