Spanish local elections, 1987

Spanish local elections, 1987

10 June 1987

65,577 seats in 8,063 local city councils 1,028 seats in 38 provincial deputations 153 seats in 3 Juntas Generales in the Basque Country 137 seats in 7 cabildos in the Canary Islands Registered 28,442,348 3.5% Turnout 19,744,334 (69.4%) 4.3 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Felipe González Antonio Hernández Mancha Adolfo Suárez Party PSOE AP CDS Leader since 13 October 1974 8 February 1987 29 July 1982 Last election 23,325 seats, 43.0% 20,671 seats, 25.6% 1,299 seats, 1.7% Seats won 23,241 16,312 5,952 Seat change 84 4,359 4,653 Popular vote 7,229,782 3,972,359 1,902,293 Percentage 37.1% 20.4% 9.8% Swing 5.9 pp 5.2 pp 8.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Jordi Pujol Gerardo Iglesias Javier Rupérez Party CiU IU PDP Leader since 19 September 1978 10 December 1982 May 1987 Last election 3,215 seats, 4.2% 2,529 seats, 8.5% Did not contest Seats won 4,350 2,315 1,520 Seat change 1,135 214 1,520 Popular vote 1,004,115 1,399,364 319,519 Percentage 5.2% 7.2% 1.6% Swing 1.0 pp 1.3 pp New party

The 1987 Spanish local elections were held on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, throughout all 8,063 Spain municipalities, simultaneously with regional elections in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities—all except for Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia. All 65,577 councillors were up for election, as well as 153 seats of the 3 Basque Juntas Generales, 137 seats of the 7 Canarian cabildos and the indirectly-elected 1,028 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.".