1979 Valencia City Council election

The 1979 Valencia City Council election, also the 1979 Valencia municipal election, was held on Tuesday, 3 April 1979, to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality of Valencia. All 33 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with local elections all throughout Spain.

1979 Valencia City Council election

3 April 1979
All 33 seats in the City Council of Valencia 17 seats needed for a majority
Registered	552,034
Turnout	344,145 (62.3%)
Leader Miguel Pastor Fernando Martínez Castellano Pedro Zamora Party UCD PSOE PCPV Leader since 1979 1979 1979 Seats won 13 13 6 Popular vote 124,683 122,482 54,124 Percentage 36.8% 36.1% 16.0%
Mayor before election Miguel Ramón Izquierdo Independent Elected Mayor Fernando Martínez Castellano PSOE

Electoral system

The City Council of Valencia (Valencian: Ajuntament de València, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Valencia) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Valencia, 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 Valencia 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 Valencia election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	124,683	36.76	n/a	13	n/a
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	122,482	36.11	n/a	13	n/a
	Communist Party of the Valencian Country (PCPV)	54,124	15.96	n/a	6	n/a
	Valencian Regional Union (URV)	17,342	5.11	n/a	1	n/a
	Communist Movement of the Valencian Country (MCPV)	4,131	1.22	n/a	0	n/a
	Nationalist Party of the Valencian Country (PNPV)	4,010	1.18	n/a	0	n/a
	Workers' Revolutionary Organization (ORT)	2,838	0.84	n/a	0	n/a
	Workers' Communist Party (PCT)	1,820	0.54	n/a	0	n/a
	Communist Unification of Spain (UCE)	1,656	0.49	n/a	0	n/a
	Valencian Front Socialist–Republican Alliance (ARSFV)	1,394	0.41	n/a	0	n/a
	Republican Left (IR)	1,313	0.39	n/a	0	n/a
	Left Bloc for National Liberation of the Valencian Country (BEANPV)	1,181	0.35	n/a	0	n/a
	Liberal Party (PL)	618	0.18	n/a	0	n/a
	Revolutionary Communist League (LCR)	508	0.15	n/a	0	n/a
Blank ballots		1,102	0.32	n/a
Total		339,202			33	n/a
Valid votes		339,202	98.56	n/a
Invalid votes		4,943	1.44	n/a
Votes cast / turnout		344,145	62.34	n/a
Abstentions		207,889	37.66	n/a
Registered voters		552,034
Sources[3][4][5]

Popular vote UCD   36.76% PSOE   36.11% PCPV   15.96% URV   5.11% MCPV   1.22% PNPV   1.18% Others   3.34% Blank ballots   0.32%

Seats UCD   39.39% PSOE   39.39% PCPV   18.18% URV   3.03%

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. "Municipal Elections. Valencia" (PDF). www.valencia.es (in Spanish). City Council of Valencia. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
4. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. April 1979. Valencia Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
5. "Eleccions municipals a València (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2017.