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

The 66 members of the Cortes of Aragon were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied regionally.

[7][8][9] In smaller constituencies, the use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

[21][22][23] Political conflict arose as the governing Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), concerned that all regions could attempt to achieve maximum devolution within a short timeframe, ruled in January 1980 that all autonomic processes other than those of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia were to be transacted under the "slow-track" procedure of Article 143;[24][25][26] the difference between both procedures being the pace in the process of devolution.

[38] Further tensions within UCD over the electoral system to be established by the Statute led to an internal party crisis,[39][40] which was aggravated after the split of former prime minister Adolfo Suárez's Democratic and Social Centre (CDS).

[42][43] As a result of UCD securing a majority in the newly elected Provisional Assembly, its candidate Gaspar Castellano was re-elected, this time as the first president of the autonomous community of Aragon.

[68][69][70] By the time the UCD's executive had voted for the liquidation of the party's mounting debts and its subsequent dissolution on 18 February 1983,[1][71][72] electoral alliances with the AP–PDP coalition had only been agreed in some provinces of the Basque Country and Galicia.

Under Article 22 of the Statute, investiture processes to elect the president of the General Deputation of Aragon required of an absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—to be obtained in the first ballot.

[7] On 27 May 1983, PSOE candidate Santiago Marraco was elected by the Cortes as new Aragonese president by an absolute majority of 35 out of 66, with support from both PCE and CDS and the abstention of the PAR.

[5][87] After the constitution of the Cortes, on 22 June 1983, the Zaragoza Territorial Court issued a ruling in which it removed a seat in the province of Huesca from the AP-PDP-UL coalition and granted it to the PCE.