1983 Barcelona municipal election

1983 Barcelona municipal election
8 May 1983
All 43 seats in the City Council of Barcelona
22 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered1,359,589 Decrease 8.2%
Turnout916,684 (67.4%)
Increase 13.1 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Pasqual Maragall Ramon Trias Alexandre Pedrós
Party PSC–PSOE CiU AP–PDP–UL
Leader since 2 December 1982 1983 1983
Last election 16 seats, 34.0% 8 seats, 18.6% 0 seats, 3.0%[a]
Seats won 21 13 6
Seat change Increase 5 Increase 5 Increase 6
Popular vote 412,991 246,780 117,052
Percentage 45.8% 27.4% 13.0%
Swing Increase 11.8 pp Increase 8.8 pp Increase 10.0 pp
  Fourth party
 
Leader Jordi Solé Tura
Party PSUC
Leader since 1983
Last election 9 seats, 18.9%
Seats won 3
Seat change Decrease 6
Popular vote 62,421
Percentage 6.9%
Swing Decrease 12.0 pp
Mayor before election

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

 Mayor after election

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

A municipal election was held in Barcelona on 8 May 1983 to elect the 2nd City Council of the municipality. All 43 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.

Overview

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] The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly, requiring an absolute majority; otherwise, the candidate from the most-voted party automatically became mayor (ties were resolved by drawing lots).[2] In the case of Barcelona, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Barcelona.[3]

Date

The term of local assemblies in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the day after the expiration date of the assemblies, with election day taking place within from 55 to 70 days after the decree's publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE).[4]

Elections to the assemblies of local entities were officially called on 10 March 1983 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 8 May.[5]

Electoral system

Voting for local assemblies was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality and with full civil and political rights.[6]

Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each municipality. Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with 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 vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.[8]

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; 22 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.

Voting preferences

The table below lists raw, unweighted voting preferences.

Results

← Summary of the 8 May 1983 City Council of Barcelona election results →
Parties and alliances Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Total +/−
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) 412,99145.80+11.75 21+5
Convergence and Union (CiU) 246,78027.37+8.78 13+5
People's Coalition (AP–PDP–UL)1 117,05212.98+9.98 6+6
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) 62,4216.92−11.98 3−6
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 34,7773.86−1.37 0−2
Party of the Communists of Catalonia (PCC) 9,6531.07New 0±0
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 8,5180.94New 0±0
Workers' Socialist Party (PST) 2,6990.30New 0±0
Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS) 1,1940.13New 0±0
Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE) 8640.10New 0±0
Popular Struggle Coalition (CLP) 8480.09New 0±0
Conservatives of Catalonia (CiC) 00.00New 0±0
Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD) n/an/a−16.73 0−8
Blank ballots 3,8470.43+0.11
Total 901,644 43±0
Valid votes 901,64498.36−1.27
Invalid votes 15,0401.64+1.27
Votes cast / turnout 916,68467.42+13.15
Abstentions 442,90532.58−13.15
Registered voters 1,359,589
Sources[11][12][13]
Footnotes:
Popular vote
PSC–PSOE
 
 45.80%
CiU
 
 27.37%
AP–PDP–UL
 
 12.98%
PSUC
 
 6.92%
ERC
 
 3.86%
PCC
 
 1.07%
Others
 
 1.57%
Blank ballots
 
 0.43%
Seats
PSC–PSOE
 
 48.84%
CiU
 
 30.23%
AP–PDP–UL
 
 13.95%
PSUC
 
 6.98%

Notes

  1. ↑ Results for CD in the 1979 election.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Results for CD (1979), SC (1980) and AP–PDP (1982).

References

Opinion poll sources

  1. ↑ "El PSC-PSOE gana en Cataluña, y en Barcelona con coalición". El País (in Spanish). 1 May 1983.
  2. ↑ "Ficha técnica de los sondeos". El País (in Spanish). 1 May 1983.
  3. ↑ "Preelectoral municipales y autonómicas 1983 (III). Barcelona capital (Estudio nº 1351. Marzo 1983)" (PDF). CIS (in Spanish). 25 March 1983.

Other

  1. ↑ Constitution (1978), art. 140; LBERL (1975), bases 1 & 4.
  2. ↑ LEL (1978), art. 28.
  3. ↑ LBERL (1975), final prov. 1 (suppl. by Decree 1166 of 23 May (1960), art. 2).
  4. ↑ LEL (1978), art. 3 & trans. prov. 2 (am. by LEL (1983), art. 2).
  5. ↑ Royal Decree 448/1983 (1983), arts. 1–2
  6. ↑ LEL (1978), art. 6.
  7. ↑ LEL (1978), arts. 5 & 10–11.
  8. ↑ LEL (1978), art. 11.
  9. 1 2 "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. October 1982. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Electoral results. Parliament of Catalonia election 1980. Barcelona (Municipality)". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  11. ↑ Lozano, Carles. "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (des de 1979)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  12. ↑ "Resultats electorals. Eleccions Municipals 1983. Barcelona (Municipi)" (in Catalan). Government of Catalonia. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  13. ↑ "Elecciones celebradas. Resultados electorales" (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Archived from the original on 5 August 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2025.

Bibliography

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