At stake in this election:

• 15 seats in the House of Assembly

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II *
• Head of Government: Chief Minister Peter CARUANA
• Assembly: Gibraltar has a unicameral House of Assembly with 18 seats.

* The Queen is represented by Governor and Commander-in-Chief Sir Francis RICHARDS.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is the hereditary head of state.
• The Chief Minister is appointed by the governor-general.
• In the House of Assembly, 15 members are elected by plurality vote in multi-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms, 2 members are reserved ex officio to serve 4-year terms and 1 members are appointed for the Speaker to serve 4-year terms.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD)
  • Leader: Peter CARUANA
  • Seats won in this election: 8
  • Seats won in last election: 8
• Party: Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP) / Liberal Party (LP)**
  • Leader: Joseph John BOSSANO and Joseph GARCIA
  • Seats won in this election: 7
  • Seats won in last election: 7
• Party: Others
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

** In this election, the GSLP and the LP formed a coalition against the GSD. In the last election, GSLP secured 5 seats and LP obtained 2.

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last parliamentary election was held on February 10, 2000.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 27,776 (July 2003 est.)