1999 Valencia City Council election

1999 Valencia City Council election

←  1995 13 June 1999 2003  →
All 33 seats in the City Council of Valencia 17 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	643,516 2.5%
Turnout	403,583 (62.7%) 10.4 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Rita Barberá Ana Noguera Antonio Montalbán Party PP PSOE EUPV Leader since 1991 27 June 1998 19 December 1998 Last election 17 seats, 49.0% 8 seats, 24.1% 5 seats, 14.8% Seats won 20 11 2 Seat change 3 3 3 Popular vote 214,129 116,437 25,602 Percentage 53.2% 29.0% 6.4% Swing 4.2 pp 4.9 pp 8.4 pp
Mayor before election Rita Barberá PP Elected Mayor Rita Barberá PP

The 1999 Valencia City Council election, also the 1999 Valencia municipal election, was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 6th City Council of the municipality of Valencia. All 33 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, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.

Electoral system

The City Council of Valencia (Valencian : Ajuntament de València, Spanish : Ayuntamiento de Valencia) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Valencia, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly. ^[1] Elections to the local councils in Spain were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. ^[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 Valencia and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.

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 appointee would be determined by lot. ^[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 ten 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 were seeking election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. For the case of Valencia, as its population was between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 5,000 signatures were required. ^[2]

Opinion polls

The table below lists voting intention estimates 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. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 17 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Valencia.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout					Lead
1999 municipal election	13 Jun 1999	—	62.7	53.2 20	29.0 11	6.4 2	4.7 0	24.2
Demoscopia/El País [p 1]	26 May–1 Jun 1999	?	?	52.3 19	27.2 9	11.0 3	6.5 2	25.1
Sigma Dos/El Mundo [p 2] [p 3]	21–26 May 1999	400	?	52.8 18/19	27.8 10	10.9 3/4	5.3 1/2	25.0
CIS [p 4]	3–20 May 1999	?	?	57.4 20/21	23.4 8/9	9.9 3	5.4 0/2	34.0
Tele 5 [p 5]	4 May 1999	?	?	56.0 20/21	? 9/10	? 2	? 1/2	?
1996 general election [3]	3 Mar 1996	—	80.2	47.6 (17)	30.4 (10)	13.1 (4)	5.8 (2)	17.2
1995 municipal election	28 May 1995	—	73.1	49.0 17	24.1 8	14.8 5	9.0 3	24.9

Results

← Summary of the 13 June 1999 City Council of Valencia election results →

Parties and alliances		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	214,129	53.25	+4.25	20	+3
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	116,437	28.95	+4.87	11	+3
	United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV)	25,602	6.37	–8.41	2	–3
	Valencian Union (UV)	19,070	4.74	–4.23	0	–3
	Valencian Nationalist Bloc–The Greens (BNV–EV)1	12,897	3.21	+2.27	0	±0
	Valencian Community Alternative (ACV)	3,389	0.84	New	0	±0
	Unemployed and Marginalized General Union (UGDM)	597	0.15	New	0	±0
	Centrist Union–Democratic and Social Centre (UC–CDS)	572	0.14	–0.22	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	498	0.12	New	0	±0
	Federal Republican Left–Federal Republican Party (IRF–PRF)	476	0.12	New	0	±0
	Valencian Nationalist Left (ENV)	432	0.11	±0.00	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	364	0.09	+0.01	0	±0
	Spanish Autonomous League (LAE)	225	0.06	+0.01	0	±0
Blank ballots		7,443	1.85	+0.67
Total		402,131			33	±0
Valid votes		402,131	99.64	–0.01
Invalid votes		1,452	0.36	+0.01
Votes cast / turnout		403,583	62.72	–10.34
Abstentions		239,933	37.28	+10.34
Registered voters		643,516
Sources [4] [5] [6] [7]
Footnotes: 1 Valencian Nationalist Bloc–The Greens results are compared to Valencian People's Union–Nationalist Bloc totals in the 1995 election.

Popular vote PP   53.25% PSOE   28.95% EUPV   6.37% UV   4.74% BNV–EV   3.21% Others   1.63% Blank ballots   1.85%

Seats PP   60.61% PSOE   33.33% EUPV   6.06%

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Barberá amplía su victoria en Valencia". El País (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
2. "Valencia: Barberá, mayoría de calle". El Mundo (in Spanish). 30 May 1999.
3. "ELECCIONES 13-J /BALANCE DE LAS ENCUESTAS". El Mundo (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
4. "El PP conserva su poder municipal, autonómico y europeo, e IU se hunde". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
5. "Una encuesta da al PP la mayoría absoluta y otorga escaños al BNV". El País (in Spanish). 4 May 1999.

Other

1. "Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local". Law No. 7 of 2 April 1985 (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 June 2020.
2. "Ley Orgánica 5/1985, de 19 de junio, del Régimen Electoral General". Organic Law No. 5 of 19 June 1985 (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
3. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. March 1996. Valencia Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
4. "Local election results, 13 June 1999" (PDF). Central Electoral Commission (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 February 2018.
5. "Municipal Elections. Valencia" (PDF). www.valencia.es (in Spanish). City Council of Valencia. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
6. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. June 1999. Valencia Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
7. "Eleccions municipals a València (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2017.