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

The 71 members of the Parliament of Galicia 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.

The Statute was published in the Official State Gazette on 28 April 1981, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Sunday, 25 October 1981.

[25] Negotiations between the various parties led to the signing of the "Hostel Pacts" (Spanish: Pacto del Hostal) on 26 September 1980,[26][27][28] and the subsequent approval of a draft Statute of Autonomy for Galicia that was to be ratified in referendum.

[37] As a result, executive procedures were initiated so as to establish the new autonomous community and hold the first Parliament election,[38][39] which was finally set for 20 October 1981.

[57] The Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdG–PSOE) included many Galician intellectuals within their lists,[58] while the People's Alliance (AP) chose Gerardo Fernández Albor as their leading candidate.

[62][63] The UCD emphasized the defense of values such as personal freedom and regional culture, the modernization of key economic sectors such as fishing and agriculture, the identity of the Spanish nation and an efficient autonomy for Galicia.

[76] The right-wing People's Alliance (AP) focused on the personal appeal of its national leader, Manuel Fraga—of Galician descent—a move which received criticism from other political parties, which dubbed it as "a trap to the electorate", because Fraga was not standing as candidate in the election.

[80] Concurrently, the Regional Government of Galicia launched a 120 million Pta-worth institutional campaign under the "Vote for yours" (Spanish: Vota a los tuyos) slogan to try to fire up turnout.

[64] The Galician Businessmen Confederation launched their own campaign by investing 110 million Pta into prompting turnout while showing their rejection of proposals from left-wing parties.

[81] Galician bishops also entered the campaign by asking to vote "for the options that, at least, will not act against some of the fundamental elements that integrate the common good from the perspective of the Christian faith".

The table below lists opinion polling on the perceived likelihood of victory for each party in the event of a regional election taking place.

[89][90] The success of AP was attributed to Fraga's personal charisma in his home region, but also on the scale of the UCD collapse,[91] a result of a poor popular perception of the UCD's action of government at the national level—first under Adolfo Suárez, then under Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo—its handling of economic crisis, the autonomic process—including the party's past stance on the Galician statute—and internal conflicts over the party's future and direction since its first electoral defeats in 1980—namely, in the Basque and Catalan elections and in the Andalusian referendum.

[101] Going into 1982, the UCD would be trailing the PSOE in opinion polls at the national level by double digits, with a sustainable migration of voters to AP being detected by pollsters after the Galician election.

[102][103] Under Article 15 of the Statute, investiture processes to elect the president of the Regional Government of Galicia required of an absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—to be obtained in the first ballot.

[6][42] After the election, AP sought an agreement with UCD and the implementation of their "natural majority" policy, under which the understanding of the right-of-centre political parties in Spain would lead to their eventual merging.

[120][121][122] The government's stability throughout its first year of tenure would remain tenuous, with UCD not pledging a stable support and forcing AP to seek it on a case-by-case basis to avoid parliamentary defeats by an uneasy UCD–PSOE collaboration.

[123] This situation would last until the 1982 general election,[124][125] when UCD's collapse and subsequent dissolution as a political party in February 1983 would lead to 12 of its former deputies to sign an agreement with AP, providing the government with a stable majority in exchange for their incorporation as cabinet members.