A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. A mayor's duties and responsibilities may be to appoint and oversee municipal managers and employees, provide basic governmental services to constituents, and execute the laws and ordinances passed by a municipal governing body. Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board.
Ayuntamiento is the general term for the town council, or cabildo, of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. Ayuntamiento is mainly used in Spain; in Latin America alcaldía is also for municipal governing bodies, especially the executive ones, where the legislative body and the executive body are two separate entities. In Catalan-speaking parts of Spain, municipalities generally use the Catalan cognate, ajuntament, while Galician ones use the word concello, Astur-Leonese conceyu and Basque udaletxea. Since ayuntamiento is a metonym for the building in which the council meets, it also translates to "city/town hall" in English.
The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary republic with a three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa.
A capital district, capital region, or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any political or economic advantage relative to the others because of the national capital lying within its borders. A capital territory can be a specific form of federal district.
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council, village council, or board of aldermen.
The Philippines is divided into four levels of administrative divisions, with the lower three being defined in the Local Government Code of 1991 as local government units (LGUs). They are, from the highest to the lowest:
- Regions are mostly used to organize national services. Of the 17 regions, only one—the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao—has an elected government to which the central government has devolved competencies.
- Provinces, independent cities, and one independent municipality (Pateros)
- Component cities and municipalities within a province
- Barangays within a city or municipality
Local government in Canada can be defined as all elected local authorities which are legally empowered to make decisions on behalf of its electors, excluding the federal government, provincial and territorial governments, and First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments. This can include municipalities, school boards, health authorities, and so on.
The 2007 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 27 May 2007, to elect all 66,131 councillors in the 8,111 municipalities of Spain and all 1,038 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities, as well as local elections in the three foral deputations of the Basque Country and the eleven island councils in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
According to the Organic Law of Regional Governments, the regions are, with the departments, the first-level administrative subdivisions of Peru. Since its 1821 independence, Peru had been divided into departments but faced the problem of increasing centralization of political and economic power in its capital, Lima.
The municipalities or municipios of El Salvador correspond to the second level administrative division in the Republic of El Salvador which divide its departments. El Salvador contains 262 municipalities.
Sangguniang Panlalawigan, commonly known as the Provincial Board, are the legislatures in Philippine provinces. They are the legislative branches of the provinces, and their powers and responsibilities are defined by the Local Government Code of 1991. Along with the provincial governor, the executive branch of the province, they form the province's government.
Daniel Estrada Pérez was a Peruvian lawyer and politician. He served as the Provincial Mayor of Cusco Province, which contains the city of Cusco, from 1984 to 1986 and again from 1990 until 1995. Estrada was then elected to the Congress of the Republic of Peru, where he served from 1995 to 2003.
The 2011 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 22 May 2011, to elect all 68,230 councillors in the 8,116 municipalities of Spain and all 1,040 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities, as well as local elections in the three foral deputations of the Basque Country and the eleven island councils in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Costa Rica’s municipal system is organized under the Municipal Code, the specific law that regulates the local governments. Municipalities are the second-level administration in Costa Rica after the central government. Each one of the 82 cantons of Costa Rica has a Municipality or Municipal Government constituted by a mayor and a proportional number of members of the Municipal Council. Districts of each of the cantons also have their local authorities and representatives. Some of the services manage by local governments include; solid waste management, building and administration of local roads, parks, libraries and schools, recollection of municipal taxes and in some cases local security. Worth noticing that in Costa Rica city and municipality are not the same thing, as a canton can have several cities within its borders, generally as districts.
The 2019 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, to elect all 66,979 councillors in the 8,131 municipalities of Spain and all 1,038 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities, as well as elections in the three foral deputations of the Basque Country, the four island councils in the Balearic Islands, the seven island cabildos in the Canary Islands and the European Parliament.
Local government in Spain refers to the government and administration of what the Constitution calls "local entities", which are primarily municipalities, but also groups of municipalities including provinces, metropolitan areas, comarcas and mancomunidades and sub-municipal groups known as Minor local entities.
The 2023 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect all 67,031 councillors in the municipalities of Spain and all 1,038 seats in 38 provincial deputations. The elections were held simultaneously with regional elections in twelve autonomous communities, as well as local elections in the three foral deputations of the Basque Country, the four island councils in the Balearic Islands and the seven island cabildos in the Canary Islands.
Municipal and regional elections in Peru were held on Sunday, 2 October 2022, electing authorities for the period 2023–2026. Since 2018, municipal and regional officials cannot serve consecutive terms.
