1983 Madrid City Council election

1983 Madrid City Council election

←  1979 8 May 1983 1987  →
All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid 29 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,380,846 0.1%
Turnout	1,685,115 (70.8%) 4.8 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Enrique Tierno Galván Jorge Verstrynge Adolfo Pastor Party PSOE AP–PDP–PL PCE Leader since 1979 1983 1983 Last election 25 seats, 39.5% Did not contest 9 seats, 14.7% Seats won 30 23 4 Seat change 5 23 5 Popular vote 808,350 631,183 113,112 Percentage 48.4% 37.8% 6.8% Swing 8.9 pp New party 7.9 pp
Mayor before election Enrique Tierno Galván PSOE Elected Mayor Enrique Tierno Galván PSOE

The 1983 Madrid City Council election, also the 1983 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 2nd City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 57 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all throughout Spain.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won with an absolute majority of 30 councillors and 48.7% of the vote, the only time to date it would do so. The People's Coalition, the electoral alliance led by the People's Alliance (AP) and including the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Union (UL), consolidated its gains made in the 1982 Spanish general election and emerged as the second political force in the city, with 38.0% and 23 seats in the City Council. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) vote fell as a result of PSOE's growth, losing over half of its councillors down to 4. ^[1] The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) had collapsed in the October general election and was disbanded in early 1983. Several UCD split parties such as Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) or former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez' Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) contested the election but failed to win any representation.

As a result of the election, Enrique Tierno Galván, was re-elected as Mayor of Madrid for a second term in office. Tierno Galván would die halfway throughout his term of natural causes, being substituted by party colleague Juan Barranco.

Electoral system

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. ^{[2] [3] [4]} 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. ^{[2] [3] [4]} 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. ^{[2] [3]}

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. ^[4]

Opinion polls

The tables below list opinion polling results 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 poll.

Voting intention estimates

The table below lists weighted voting intention estimates. Refusals are generally excluded from the party vote percentages, while question wording and the treatment of "don't know" responses and those not intending to vote may vary between polling organisations. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are also displayed below (or in place of) the voting estimates in a smaller font; 29 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout							Lead
1983 municipal election	8 May 1983	—	70.8	–	48.4 30	6.8 4	37.8 23	3.0 0	2.6 0	10.6
Sofemasa/El País [p 1] [p 2]	23–26 Apr 1983	?	78.0	–	56.7 37/39	8.5 4/5	20.9 15/17	3.9 0	1.1 0	35.8
AP [lower-alpha 1] [p 3]	14 Mar 1983	3,082	71	–	44.8 27	6.1 3	43.8 27	<5.0 0	–	1.0
1982 general election [5]	28 Oct 1982	—	86.9	3.5 (0)	48.1 (33)	4.5 (0)	35.7 [lower-alpha 2] (24)	4.7 (0)	–	12.4
1979 municipal election	3 Apr 1979	—	66.0	40.3 25	39.5 25	14.7 9	–	–	–	0.8

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size							?	N	Lead
1983 municipal election	8 May 1983	—	–	33.7	4.7	26.3	2.1	1.8	—	30.6	7.4
Alef–Emopública/CIS [p 4]	17–25 Mar 1983	498	–	45.7	4.2	8.7	0.8	0.2	32.6	6.8	37.0
1982 general election [5]	28 Oct 1982	—	3.0	41.1	3.8	30.5 [lower-alpha 2]	4.1	–	—	13.1	10.6
1979 municipal election	3 Apr 1979	—	26.6	26.1	9.7	–	–	–	—	34.0	0.5

Results

← Summary of the 8 May 1983 City Council of Madrid election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	808,350	48.44	+8.95	30	+5
	People's Coalition (AP–PDP–UL)	631,183	37.82	New	23	+23
	Communist Party of Spain (PCE)	113,112	6.78	–7.91	4	–5
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	50,824	3.05	New	0	±0
	Liberal Democratic Party (PDL)	44,159	2.65	New	0	±0
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	5,721	0.34	New	0	±0
	Spanish Communist Workers' Party (PCOE)	3,284	0.20	–0.13	0	±0
	Natural Culture (CN)	2,281	0.14	New	0	±0
	Revolutionary Communist League (LCR)	1,543	0.09	–0.02	0	±0
	Popular Struggle Coalition (CLP)	859	0.05	New	0	±0
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	n/a	n/a	–40.29	0	–25
Blank ballots		7,402	0.44	+0.44
Total		1,668,718			57	–2
Valid votes		1,668,718	99.03	–0.97
Invalid votes		16,397	0.97	+0.97
Votes cast / turnout		1,685,115	70.78	+4.80
Abstentions		695,731	29.22	–4.80
Registered voters		2,380,846
Sources [6] [7] [8]

Popular vote PSOE   48.44% AP–PDP–UL   37.82% PCE   6.78% CDS   3.05% PDL   2.65% Others   0.82% Blank ballots   0.44%

Seats PSOE   52.63% AP–PDP–UL   40.35% PCE   7.02%

Notes

1. Undecided and/or abstentionists excluded.
2. Results for AP–PDP.

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "El PSOE tendrá tres veces más votos que AP en las dos elecciones". El País (in Spanish). 1 May 1983.
2. "Ficha técnica de los sondeos". El País (in Spanish). 1 May 1983.
3. "Una encuesta de Alianza Popular les aproxima en votos al PSOE". Hoja del Lunes de Madrid (in Spanish). 14 March 1983.
4. "Preelectoral municipales y autonómicas 1983 (III). Madrid capital (Estudio nº 1351. Marzo 1983)" (PDF). CIS (in Spanish). 25 March 1983.

Other

1. "El PSOE consume la mayoría absoluta de concejales Madrid a costa de la baja del PCE". El País (in Spanish). 9 May 1983. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
2. Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de elecciones locales (Law 39) (in Spanish). 17 July 1978. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
3. Ley Orgánica 6/1983, de 2 de marzo, por la que se modifican determinados artículos de la Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de Elecciones Locales (Organic Law 6) (in Spanish). 2 March 1983. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
4. 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.
5. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. October 1982. Madrid Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
6. "City Council of Madrid. Elections". www.madrid.es (in Spanish). City Council of Madrid . Retrieved 5 December 2017.
7. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. May 1983. Madrid Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
8. "Elecciones Municipales en Madrid (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 September 2017.