The Parliament convenes at the Saint Raphael Hospital, an 18th-century building in the city of Santander rehabilitated in the 1980s to house the Regional Assembly.

All Parliament members are elected to a four-year term in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Community's territory (the province of Cantabria), using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system.

Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the community (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) are entitled to enter the seat distribution.

[1] The first elections were held in 1983 when the People's Coalition won a majority of seats and José Antonio Rodríguez became the first regional president.

[2] The building where the Parliament of Cantabria is placed is the old Hospital of Saint Raphael, in the High Street (old district) of Santander, Spain.

The hospital closed down in 1928, and in 1982, the regional assembly of Cantabria started the restoration project of the building, which ended in 1984 and won some awards.