1987 Barcelona City Council election

The 1987 Barcelona City Council election, also the 1987 Barcelona municipal election, was held on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, to elect the 3rd City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain, as well as the 1987 European Parliament election.

1987 Barcelona City Council election

10 June 1987
All 43 seats in the City Council of Barcelona 22 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	1,342,049 1.3%
Turnout	925,036 (68.9%) 1.5 pp
Leader Pasqual Maragall Josep Maria Cullell Enrique Lacalle Party PSC–PSOE CiU AP Leader since 2 December 1982 1987 1987 Last election 21 seats, 45.8% 13 seats, 27.4% 6 seats, 13.0%[lower-alpha 1] Seats won 21 17 3 Seat change 0 4 3 Popular vote 400,280 325,463 69,419 Percentage 43.6% 35.5% 7.6% Swing 2.2 pp 8.1 pp 5.4 pp   Leader Eulàlia Vintró Party IC Leader since 1987 Last election 3 seats, 8.0%[lower-alpha 2] Seats won 2 Seat change 1 Popular vote 47,406 Percentage 5.2% Swing 2.8 pp
Mayor before election Pasqual Maragall PSC Elected Mayor Pasqual Maragall 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 political rights, as well as resident non-nationals whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty. 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, a toss-up would determine the appointee.[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 ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they were seeking election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. For the case of Barcelona, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required.[2]

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first and using the dates when the survey fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. Where the fieldwork dates are unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed with its background shaded in the leading party's colour. If a tie ensues, this is applied to the figures with the highest percentages. The "Lead" column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the parties with the highest percentages in a given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 22 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout								IC	Lead
1987 municipal election	10 Jun 1987	N/A	68.9	43.6 21	35.5 17	–	[lower-alpha 3]	5.2 2	2.3 0	7.6 3	3.4 0	8.1
Sigma Dos/Diario 16[p 1]	4 Jun 1987	?	?	? 19/21	? 14/16	–	[lower-alpha 3]	–	–	? 5/6	? 2/3	?
DYM/Cambio 16	4 Jun 1987	?	?	? 21/23	? 13/14	–	[lower-alpha 3]	–	? 1/2	? 2/4	? 2/3	?
ABC[p 2]	2 Jun 1987	?	?	? 20/22	? 17/19	–	[lower-alpha 3]	–	–	? 3/5	–	?
Central de Campo/PSC[p 3]	1–2 Jun 1987	800	?	? 23/24	? 14/15	–	[lower-alpha 3]	–	–	? 3/4	? 2	?
Demoscopia/El País[p 4]	22–26 May 1987	?	68	32.9 15	33.6 16	–	[lower-alpha 3]	2.8 0	5.9 2	15.5 7	7.7 3	0.7
DYM/La Vanguardia[p 5]	27–29 Apr 1987	1,001	?	46.8 23	29.1 14	–	[lower-alpha 3]	4.2 0	2.7 0	7.6 3	6.8 3	17.7
Line Staff/CiU[lower-alpha 4][p 6]	4–10 Apr 1987	1,478	?	39.1	30.0	–	[lower-alpha 3]	2.7	1.2	2.3	2.8	9.1
CIS[p 7]	25 Mar–5 Apr 1987	802	?	48.6 25	29.5 15	–	[lower-alpha 3]	–	–	5.8 3	–	19.1
1986 general election[3]	22 Jun 1986	N/A	67.4	34.4 18	34.1 18	14.7 7	[lower-alpha 5]	3.1 0	4.9 0	[lower-alpha 6]	4.2* 0	0.3
1984 regional election[4]	29 Apr 1984	N/A	64.4	26.4 13	49.0 25	10.3 5	5.0 0	4.7 0	–	[lower-alpha 6]	–	22.6
1983 municipal election	8 May 1983	N/A	67.4	45.8 21	27.4 13	13.0 6	6.9 3	3.9 0	0.9 0	[lower-alpha 6]	–	18.4
(*) Results for Union of the Catalan Left.

Results

← Summary of the 10 June 1987 City Council of Barcelona election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE)	400,280	43.61	–2.19	21	±0
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	325,463	35.46	+8.09	17	+4
	People's Alliance (AP)^1	69,419	7.56	–5.42	3	–3
	Initiative for Catalonia (IC)^2	47,406	5.16	–2.83	2	–1
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	31,028	3.38	+2.44	0	±0
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	21,236	2.31	–1.55	0	±0
	Green Alternative–Ecologist Movement of Catalonia (AV–MEC)	3,916	0.43	New	0	±0
	Ecologist Party of Catalonia–VERDE (PEC–VERDE)	3,116	0.34	New	0	±0
	Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity (PTE–UC)	2,078	0.23	New	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	1,388	0.15	+0.02	0	±0
	Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE)	1,152	0.13	+0.03	0	±0
	Republican Popular Unity (UPR)^3	1,069	0.12	+0.03	0	±0
	Humanist Platform (PH)	948	0.10	New	0	±0
	Communist Unification of Spain (UCE)	869	0.09	New	0	±0
	Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI)	636	0.07	New	0	±0
	Social Democratic Party of Catalonia (PSDC)	566	0.06	New	0	±0
	Communist Workers' League (LOC)	428	0.05	New	0	±0
	People's Democratic Party (PDP)	0	0.00	New	0	±0
Blank ballots		6,879	0.75	+0.32
Total		917,877			43	±0
Valid votes		917,877	99.23	+0.87
Invalid votes		7,159	0.77	–0.87
Votes cast / turnout		925,036	68.93	+1.51
Abstentions		417,013	31.07	–1.51
Registered voters		1,342,049
Sources[5][6][7][8]

Popular vote PSC–PSOE   43.61% CiU   35.46% AP   7.56% IC   5.16% CDS   3.38% ERC   2.31% Others   1.76% Blank ballots   0.75%

Seats PSC–PSOE   48.84% CiU   39.53% AP   6.98% IC   4.65%

Notes

1. Data for AP–PDP–UL in the 1983 election.
2. Aggregated data for PSUC and PCC in the 1983 election.
3. Within IC.
4. Undecided and/or abstentionists excluded.
5. Within UEC.
6. Within AP–PDP–UL/AP–PDP–PL.

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Algunas encuestas electorales plantean un descenso exagerado del PSOE". ABC (in Spanish). 5 June 1987.
2. "Maragall puede perder". ABC (in Spanish). 2 June 1987.
3. "La última encuesta socialista da la mayoría absoluta al PSC en Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 4 June 1987.
4. "Maragall puede perder la alcaldía en beneficio de Cullell" (PDF). El País (in Spanish). 4 June 1987.
5. "Los sondeos de PSC y CIU discrepan sobre el resultado electoral en Barcelona". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 10 May 1987.
6. "Los socialistas podrían gobernar con mayoría absoluta". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 8 May 1987.
7. "Un sondeo del CIS para el Gobierno da la mayoría del PSOE en Madrid y Barcelona" (PDF). El País (in Spanish). 4 June 1987.

Other

1. "Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local". Law No. 7 of 2 April 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 June 2020.
2. "Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General". Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
3. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. June 1986. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
4. "Electoral results. Parliament of Catalonia election 1984. Barcelona (Municipality)". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 13 July 2020.
5. "Election Results. Municipal Elections 1987. Barcelona". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
6. "Local election results, 10 June 1987" (PDF). Central Electoral Commission (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 February 2018.
7. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. June 1987. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
8. "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2017.