1979 Madrid City Council election

The 1979 Madrid City Council election, also the 1979 Madrid municipal election, was held on Tuesday, 3 April 1979, to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 59 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with local elections all throughout Spain.

1979 Madrid City Council election

3 April 1979 1983 →

All 59 seats in the City Council of Madrid
30 seats needed for a majority
Registered2,378,941
Turnout1,569,610 (66.0%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader José Luis Álvarez Enrique Tierno Galván Ramón Tamames
Party UCD PSOE PCE
Leader since 1979 1979 1979
Seats won 25 25 9
Popular vote 632,329 619,772 230,651
Percentage 40.3% 39.5% 14.7%

Mayor before election

Luis María Huete y Morillo
UCD

Elected Mayor

Enrique Tierno Galván
PSOE

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.

Electoral system

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The City Council of Madrid (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Madrid) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Madrid, 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 18 years of age, registered in the municipality of Madrid and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.

Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council.[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, the eldest one would be elected.[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 fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one-thousandth of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election—with a compulsory minimum of 500 signatures—disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.[2]

Results

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Summary of the 3 April 1979 City Council of Madrid election results
 
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 MovementOrganization 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[3][4]
Popular vote
UCD
40.29%
PSOE
39.49%
PCE
14.69%
ORT
2.38%
FE–JONS
1.60%
Others
1.56%
Blank ballots
0.00%
Seats
UCD
42.37%
PSOE
42.37%
PCE
15.25%

References

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  1. ^ a b c Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de elecciones locales (Law 39) (in Spanish). 17 July 1978. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Real Decreto-ley 20/1977, de 18 de marzo, sobre Normas Electorales (Royal Decree-Law 20) (in Spanish). 18 March 1977. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. April 1979. Madrid Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  4. ^ "Elecciones Municipales en Madrid (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 September 2017.