2023 Seville City Council election

The 2023 Seville City Council election, also the 2023 Seville municipal election, will be held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th City Council of the municipality of Seville. All 31 seats in the City Council are up for election. The election will be held simultaneously with regional elections in at least seven autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

2023 Seville City Council election

28 May 2023
All 31 seats in the City Council of Seville 16 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Juan Espadas Beltrán Pérez Susana Serrano Party PSOE–A PP Adelante Leader since 24 May 2010 16 March 2018 14 April 2015 Last election 13 seats, 39.2% 8 seats, 23.1% 4 seats, 14.1% Current seats 13 8 4 Seats needed 3 8 12   Leader Álvaro Pimentel Cristina Peláez Party Cs Vox Leader since 27 March 2019 22 April 2019 Last election 4 seats, 12.5% 2 seats, 8.0% Current seats 4 2 Seats needed 12 14
Incumbent Mayor Juan Espadas PSOE–A

Electoral system

The City Council of Seville (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Sevilla) is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Seville, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.[1] Elections to the local councils in Spain are fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.[2]

Voting for the local assembly is on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprises all nationals over eighteen, registered and residing in the municipality of Seville and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allows Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty. Local councillors are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of five percent of valid votes—which includes blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Parties not reaching the threshold are not taken into consideration for seat distribution.[1][2] Councillors are allocated to municipal councils based on the following scale:

Population	Councillors
<100	3
101–250	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 is indirectly elected by the plenary assembly. A legal clause requires that mayoral candidates earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party in the assembly shall be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, a toss-up would determine the appointee.[1]

The electoral law allows 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 are required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors need to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they are seeking election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. For the case of Seville, as its population is between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 5,000 signatures are 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. 16 seats are required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Seville.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout						Lead
SW Demoscopia/Grupo Viva[p 1]	8–15 Jun 2020	1,006	?	40.8 13/14	22.5 7/8	12.3 3/4	7.7 2/3	12.9 3/4	18.3
2019 municipal election	26 May 2019	N/A	58.8	39.2 13	23.1 8	14.1 4	12.5 4	8.0 2	16.1

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Espadas volvería a ser alcalde de Sevilla con una "mayoría suficiente"". Andalucía Información (in Spanish). 22 June 2020.

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.