Spanish local elections, 1991

Spanish local elections, 1991

26 May 1991

66,308 seats in 8,082 local councils 1,032 seats in 38 provincial deputations 153 seats in 3 Juntas Generales in the Basque Country 139 seats in 7 cabildos in the Canary Islands Registered 30,223,384 6.3% Turnout 18,973,514 (62.8%) 6.6 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Felipe González José María Aznar Jordi Pujol Party PSOE PP CiU Leader since 13 October 1974 4 September 1989 19 September 1978 Last election 23,241 seats, 37.1% 17,890 seats, 22.1% 4,350 seats, 5.2% Seats won 25,260 19,298 4,360 Seat change 2,019 1,408 10 Popular vote 7,224,242 4,775,051 915,291 Percentage 38.3% 25.3% 4.9% Swing 1.2 pp 3.2 pp 0.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Adolfo Suárez Julio Anguita José María Mur Party CDS IU PAR Leader since 29 July 1982 12 February 1989 3 August 1987 Last election 5,952 seats, 9.8% 2,315 seats, 7.2% 896 seats, 0.7% Seats won 2,939 2,614 1,115 Seat change 3,013 299 219 Popular vote 731,331 1,579,097 128,025 Percentage 3.9% 8.4% 0.7% Swing 5.9 pp 1.2 pp ±0.0 pp

The 1991 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 26 May 1991, throughout all 8,082 Spain municipalities, simultaneously with regional elections in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities—all except for Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia. All 66,308 councillors were up for election, as well as 153 seats of the 3 Basque Juntas Generales, 139 seats of the 7 Canarian cabildos and the indirectly-elected 1,032 seats of the 38 provincial deputations.

Electoral system

Local councils

The number of seats in each city council was determined by the population count. According to the municipal electoral law, the population-seat relationship on each municipality was to be established on the following scale:

Population	Seats
<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

Additionally, for populations greater than 100,000, 1 seat was to be added per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction, according to the most updated census data, and adding 1 more seat if the resulting seat count gives an even number.

All city council members were elected in single multi-member districts, consisting of the municipality's territory, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the municipality (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

The Spanish municipal electoral law established a clause stating that, if no candidate was to gather an absolute majority of votes to be elected as mayor of a municipality, the candidate of the most-voted party would be automatically elected to the post.^[1]

Provincial deputations

The provincial deputations were elected indirectly by a council which in turn was elected from the judicial districts. The apportionment of deputies per province depends on population and was given as follows:

Population	Seats
<500,000	25
500,001–1,000,000	27
1,000,001–3,500,000	31
>3,500,000	51

References

1. "Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime. Title III, Special Provisions for Municipal Elections.".