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.

1979 Barcelona City Council election

3 April 1979
All 43 seats in the City Council of Barcelona 22 seats needed for a majority
Registered	1,480,453
Turnout	803,419 (54.3%)
Leader Narcís Serra Josep Miquel Abad Xavier Millet Party PSC–PSOE PSUC CiU Leader since 1979 1979 1979 Seats won 16 9 8 Popular vote 272,512 151,288 148,806 Percentage 34.0% 18.9% 18.6%   Leader Carlos Güell de Sentmenat Joan Hortalà Party CC–UCD ERC Leader since 1979 1979 Seats won 8 2 Popular vote 133,885 41,845 Percentage 16.7% 5.2%
Mayor before election Manuel Font Independent Elected Mayor Narcís Serra PSC

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.[1][2]

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. Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. 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
<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 the event of a tie, the eldest one would be elected.[1]

The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one-thousandth of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election—with a compulsory minimum of 500 signatures—disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.[2]

Results

Summary of the 3 April 1979 City Council of Barcelona election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		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]

Popular vote PSC–PSOE   34.05% PSUC   18.90% CiU   18.59% CC–UCD   16.73% ERC–FNC   5.23% CD   3.00% PTC–UC   1.10% Others   1.53% Blank ballots   0.32%

Seats PSC–PSOE   37.21% PSUC   20.93% CiU   18.60% CC–UCD   18.60% ERC–FNC   4.65%

References

1. "Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de elecciones locales". Law No. 39 of 17 July 1978. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
2. "Real Decreto-ley 20/1977, de 18 de marzo, sobre Normas Electorales". Royal Decree-Law No. 20 of 18 March 1977. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
3. "Election Results. Municipal Elections 1979. Barcelona". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
4. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. April 1979. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
5. "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2017.