Spanish local elections, 1999

Spanish local elections, 1999

13 June 1999

65,201 seats in 8,101 local councils 1,034 seats in 38 provincial deputations 153 seats in 3 Juntas Generales in the Basque Country 139 seats in 7 cabildos in the Canary Islands Registered 33,585,957 5.1% Turnout 21,491,984 (64.0%) 5.9 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader José María Aznar Joaquín Almunia Jordi Pujol Party PP PSOE CiU Leader since 4 September 1989 21 June 1997 19 September 1978 Last election 24,772 seats, 35.3% 21,189 seats, 30.8% 4,240 seats, 4.4% Seats won 24,623 21,917 4,089 Seat change 149 728 151 Popular vote 7,334,135 7,296,484 774,074 Percentage 34.4% 34.3% 3.6% Swing 0.9 pp 3.5 pp 0.8 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Julio Anguita José María Mur Arnaldo Otegi Party IU PAR EH Leader since 12 February 1989 3 August 1987 14 February 1998 Last election 3,493 seats, 11.7% 1,050 seats, 0.5% 621 seats, 0.8% Seats won 2,295 925 890 Seat change 1,198 125 269 Popular vote 1,387,900 87,493 272,446 Percentage 6.5% 0.4% 1.3% Swing 5.2 pp 0.1 pp 0.5 pp

The 1999 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, throughout all 8,101 Spain municipalities, simultaneously with regional elections in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities—all except for Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia. All 65,201 councillors were up for election, as well as 153 seats of the 3 Basque Juntas Generales, 139 seats of the 7 Canarian cabildos and the indirectly-elected 1,034 seats of the 38 provincial deputations.

Electoral system

Local councils

The number of seats in each city council was determined by the population count. According to the municipal electoral law, the population-seat relationship on each municipality was to be established on the following scale:

Population	Seats
<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

Additionally, for populations greater than 100,000, 1 seat was to be added per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction, according to the most updated census data, and adding 1 more seat if the resulting seat count gives an even number.

All city council members were elected in single multi-member districts, consisting of the municipality's territory, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the municipality (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

The Spanish municipal electoral law established a clause stating that, if no candidate was to gather an absolute majority of votes to be elected as mayor of a municipality, the candidate of the most-voted party would be automatically elected to the post.^[1]

Provincial deputations

The provincial deputations were elected indirectly by a council which in turn was elected from the judicial districts. The apportionment of deputies per province depends on population and was given as follows:

Population	Seats
<500,000	25
500,001–1,000,000	27
1,000,001–3,500,000	31
>3,500,000	51

References

1. "Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime. Title III, Special Provisions for Municipal Elections.".