1979 Madrid municipal election
Election in the Spanish municipality of Madrid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A municipal election was held in Madrid on 3 April 1979 to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality. All 59 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with local elections all across Spain.
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3 April 1979
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All 59 seats in the City Council of Madrid 30 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 2,378,941 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 1,569,610 (66.0%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) emerged as the most voted party, but in a seat tie with the second force, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), at 25 seats. As neither had an absolute majority of seats, it was up to the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) 9 seats to decide which party was to govern in Madrid.
Finally, an agreement between the PSOE and PCE resulted in Enrique Tierno Galván being named as the first democratically elected Mayor of Madrid.
Overview
Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in Spain—part of the country's local government system—was centered on the figure of city councils (Spanish: ayuntamientos), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly.[1] The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly, requiring an absolute majority; otherwise, the candidate from the most-voted party automatically became mayor (ties were resolved by drawing lots).[2] In the case of Madrid, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Madrid.[3]
Date
The term of local assemblies in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the day after the expiration date of the assemblies, with election day taking place 65 days after the decree's publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE).[4]
Elections to the assemblies of local entities were officially called on 27 January 1979 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 3 April.[5]
Electoral system
Voting for local assemblies was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality and with full civil and political rights.[6]
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each municipality. Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with a number of seats based on the following scale:[7]
| 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 law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.[8]
Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within 10 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 sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list. In the case of Madrid, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 5,000 signatures were required.[9]
Below is a list of the main parties and alliances which contested the election:
| Candidacy | Parties and alliances |
Leading candidate | Ideology | Gov. | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCD | List |
|
José Luis Álvarez | Centrism |  |
[10] [11] [12] | |
| PSOE | List |
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Enrique Tierno Galván | Social democracy |  |
[13] [14] [15] [16] | |
| PCE | List
|
.jpg) |
Ramón Tamames | Eurocommunism | |
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Results
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| Parties and alliances | Popular vote | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ±pp | Total | +/− | ||
| Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) | 632,329 | 40.29 | n/a | 25 | n/a | |
| Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | 619,772 | 39.49 | n/a | 25 | n/a | |
| Communist Party of Spain (PCE) | 230,651 | 14.69 | n/a | 9 | n/a | |
| Workers' Revolutionary Organization (ORT) | 37,396 | 2.38 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS) | 25,038 | 1.60 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (historical) (PSOEh) | 5,317 | 0.34 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Communist Unification of Spain (UCE) | 5,251 | 0.33 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Spanish Communist Workers' Party (PCOE) | 5,241 | 0.33 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Communist Movement–Organization of Communist Left (MC–OIC) | 2,401 | 0.15 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Socialist Party (PS) | 2,298 | 0.15 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Liberal Party (PL) | 2,132 | 0.14 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) | 1,784 | 0.11 | n/a | 0 | n/a | |
| Blank ballots | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | |||
| Total | 1,569,610 | 59 | n/a | |||
| Valid votes | 1,569,610 | 100.00 | n/a | |||
| Invalid votes | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | |||
| Votes cast / turnout | 1,569,610 | 65.98 | n/a | |||
| Abstentions | 809,331 | 34.02 | n/a | |||
| Registered voters | 2,378,941 | |||||
| Sources[17][18] | ||||||
