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All 33 seats in the City Council of Valencia 17 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 643,516  2.5% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 403,583 (62.7%) 10.4 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A municipal election was held in Valencia on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 6th City Council of the municipality. All 33 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.
Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in Spain—part of the country's local government system—was centered on the figure of city councils (Spanish : ayuntamientos), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly. [1] [2] In the case of Valencia, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Valencia. [3]
Voting for local assemblies was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality of Valencia and in full enjoyment of their political rights (provided that they were not sentenced—by a final court ruling—to deprivation of the right to vote, nor being legally incapacitated), 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. [2] [4] [5]
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes (which included blank ballots) being applied in each municipality. [6] Each municipality constituted a multi-member constituency, entitled a number of seats based on the following scale: [7]
| 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 law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes. [8]
The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly. [2] A legal clause required candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee was to be determined by lot. [9]
The term of city councils in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election, with election day being fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years (as of 2025, this has been the year before a leap year), but a legal amendment introduced in 1998 allowed for local elections held in May 1995 to be held concurrently with European Parliament elections, provided that they were scheduled for within a four month-timespan. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the fifty-fifth day prior to the scheduled election date and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE). [10] The previous local elections were held on 28 May 1995, setting the date for election day concurrently with that year's European Parliament election on Sunday, 13 June 1999.
Local councils could not be dissolved before the expiry of their term, except in cases of mismanagement that seriously harmed the public interest and implied a breach of constitutional obligations, in which case the Council of Ministers could—optionally—agree to call a by-election. [11]
Elections to local councils were officially called on 20 April 1999 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 13 June. [12]
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance 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 sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. In the case of Valencia, as its population was between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 5,000 signatures were required. [13]
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:
| Candidacy | Parties and alliances | Leading candidate | Ideology | Previous result | Gov. | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vote % | Seats | ||||||||
| PP | List
|  | Rita Barberá | Conservatism Christian democracy | 49.0% | 17 |  | [14] | |
| PSOE | List |  | Ana Noguera | Social democracy | 24.1% | 8 |  | [15] [16] [17] | |
| EUPV | List
|  | Antonio Montalbán | Socialism Communism | 14.8% | 5 | | [18] [19] | |
| UV | List
| | Társilo Piles | Blaverism Conservatism | 9.0% | 3 | | ||
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.
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 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 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 |
 | ||||||
| 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 [20] [21] [22] [23] | ||||||
Footnotes:
| ||||||
| Investiture | |||
| Ballot → | 3 July 1999 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Required majority → | 17 out of 33 | ||
| 20 / 33 |  | |
11 / 33 |  | ||
2 / 33 | | ||
| Abstentions/Blank ballots | 0 / 33 | ||
| Absentees | 0 / 33 | ||
| Sources [24] | |||
