1979 Barcelona City Council election
The 1979 Barcelona City Council election, also the 1979 Barcelona municipal election, was held on Tuesday, 3 April 1979, to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with local elections all throughout Spain.
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All 43 seats in the City Council of Barcelona 22 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 1,480,453 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 803,419 (54.3%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Electoral system
The City Council of Barcelona (Catalan: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Barcelona, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly. Voting for the local assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in the municipality of Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.[1][2]
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 5 percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution.[1][2] Councillors were allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:
Population | Councillors |
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<250 | 5 |
251–1,000 | 7 |
1,001–2,000 | 9 |
2,001–5,000 | 11 |
5,001–10,000 | 13 |
10,001–20,000 | 17 |
20,001–50,000 | 21 |
50,001–100,000 | 25 |
>100,001 | +1 per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction +1 if total is an even number |
The mayor was indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause required that mayoral candidates earned the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly was to be automatically appointed to the post. In case of a tie, the eldest would be elected.[2]
The electoral law provided that parties, federations, coalitions and groupings of electors were allowed to present lists of candidates. However, groupings of electors were required to secure the signature of at least 0.1 percent of the electors registered in the municipality for which they sought election—needing to secure, in any case, the signature of 500 electors—. Electors were barred from signing for more than one list of candidates. Concurrently, parties and federations intending to enter in coalition to take part jointly at an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election being called.[1]
Results
Parties and coalitions | Popular vote | Seats | ||||
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Votes | % | ±pp | Total | +/− | ||
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) | 272,512 | 34.05 | n/a | 16 | n/a | |
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) | 151,288 | 18.90 | n/a | 9 | n/a | |
Convergence and Union (CiU) | 148,806 | 18.59 | n/a | 8 | n/a | |
Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD) | 133,885 | 16.73 | n/a | 8 | n/a | |
Republican Left of Catalonia–National Front of Catalonia (ERC–FNC) | 41,845 | 5.23 | n/a | 2 | n/a | |
Democratic Coalition (CD) | 24,039 | 3.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Workers' Party of Catalonia–Communist Unity (PTC–UC) | 8,832 | 1.10 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Communist Movement–Organization of Communist Left (MC–OEC) | 4,259 | 0.53 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Socialist Party of National Liberation (PSAN) | 3,123 | 0.39 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Social Christian Democracy of Catalonia (DSCC) | 2,950 | 0.37 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) | 1,939 | 0.24 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Catalan Left Bloc (BEC) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Democratic Municipal Action (AMD) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
New Force (FN) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Republican Left (IR) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
List for Workers' Courts (LCO) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Workers' Revolutionary Organization (ORT) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
Blank ballots | 2,547 | 0.32 | n/a | |||
Total | 800,428 | 43 | n/a | |||
Valid votes | 800,428 | 99.63 | n/a | |||
Invalid votes | 2,991 | 0.37 | n/a | |||
Votes cast / turnout | 803,419 | 54.27 | n/a | |||
Abstentions | 677,034 | 45.73 | n/a | |||
Registered voters | 1,480,453 | |||||
Sources[3][4][5] |
References
- "Electoral Rules Decree of 1977". Royal Decree-Law No. 20 of 18 March 1977. Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- "Local Elections Law of 1978". Law of 17 July 1978. Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 August 2017.
- "Election Results. Municipal Elections 1979. Barcelona". gencat.cat (in Catalan). Generalitat of Catalonia. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. April 1979. Barcelona Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
- "Municipal elections in Barcelona since 1979". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 30 September 2017.