1995 Barcelona City Council election

The 1995 Barcelona City Council election, also the 1995 Barcelona municipal election, was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 5th City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 41 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.

1995 Barcelona City Council election
28 May 1995
All 41 seats in the City Council of Barcelona
21 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered1,368,148 0.9%
Turnout906,038 (66.2%)
10.7 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Pasqual Maragall Miquel Roca Enrique Lacalle
Party PSC–PSOE CiU PP
Leader since 2 December 1982 7 July 1994 1987
Last election 20 seats, 42.9% 16 seats, 34.1% 4 seats, 9.8%
Seats won 16 13 7
Seat change 4 3 3
Popular vote 347,083 276,276 150,284
Percentage 38.4% 30.6% 16.6%
Swing 4.5 pp 3.5 pp 6.8 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Eulàlia Vintró Pilar Rahola
Party IC–EV ERC
Leader since 1987 11 March 1995
Last election 3 seats, 6.4% 0 seats, 2.6%
Seats won 3 2
Seat change ±0 2
Popular vote 68,813 46,272
Percentage 7.6% 5.1%
Swing 1.2 pp 2.5 pp
Mayor before election

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

 Elected Mayor

Pasqual Maragall
PSC

The unveiling of numerous corruption scandals throughout 1994 affecting Felipe González's Socialist government marked the electoral campaign. For the first time in 16 years, a real possibility for change in the local government resulted in a heated race between Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) candidate and incumbent Mayor Pasqual Maragall and Convergence and Union (CiU) candidate Miquel Roca. Another factors influencing the political debate were the People's Party (PP) rise in opinion polls as well as Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) recovery.

The election resulted in a surprising comfortable win for PSC and Pasqual Maragall, which was elected for a fourth consecutive term in office with 16 seats and 38.4%. On the other hand, CiU suffered from the PP growth and obtained its worst result since 1983, winning 13 seats and 30.6%. The People's Party nearly doubled its 1991 result with 7 seats and 16.6%, while both Initiative for Catalonia (IC) and ERC improved their electoral performances, with the latter narrowly surpassing the 5% threshold to enter the City Council.

Electoral system

The City Council of Barcelona (Catalan: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Barcelona, 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 eighteen, registered in the municipality of Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-nationals 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 a threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution.[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, a toss-up would determine the appointee.[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 Barcelona, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 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 given poll. When available, seat projections are also displayed below the voting estimates in a smaller font. 21 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona (22 until 1 January 1992).

Color key:

  Exit poll

Results
← Summary of the 28 May 1995 City Council of Barcelona election results →
Parties and coalitions Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Total +/−
Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) 347,08338.39–4.56 16–4
Convergence and Union (CiU) 276,27630.56–3.50 13–3
People's Party (PP) 150,28416.62+6.83 7+3
Initiative for Catalonia–The Greens (IC–EV)1 68,8137.61+0.03 3±0
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 46,2725.12+2.55 2+2
Ecologist Alternative of Catalonia (AEC) 3,3040.37New 0±0
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) 1,2560.14–0.70 0±0
Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR) 7260.08+0.01 0±0
Civic Platform–New Socialist Party (PC–NPS) 5710.06New 0±0
Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRT)2 3760.04–0.13 0±0
Platform of Independents of Spain (PIE) 3200.04New 0±0
Humanist Platform (PH)3 2980.03–0.77 0±0
European Nation State (N) 1810.02New 0±0
Blank ballots 8,2630.91–0.01
Total 904,023 41–2
Valid votes 904,02399.78+0.08
Invalid votes 2,0150.22–0.08
Votes cast / turnout 906,03866.22+10.71
Abstentions 462,11033.78–10.71
Registered voters 1,368,148
Sources[6][7][8][9]
Popular vote
PSC–PSOE
 
 38.39%
CiU
 
 30.56%
PP
 
 16.62%
IC–EV
 
 7.61%
ERC
 
 5.12%
Others
 
 0.78%
Blank ballots
 
 0.91%
Seats
PSC–PSOE
 
 39.00%
CiU
 
 31.71%
PP
 
 17.07%
IC–EV
 
 7.32%
ERC
 
 4.88%

Notes
  1. Undecided and/or abstentionists excluded.

References
Opinion poll sources
  1. "Sondejos". Generalitat de Catalunya (in Catalan). Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  2. "Encuesta Vox Públicza 21/05/1995". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). 21 May 1995.
  3. "Maragall adelanta a Roca". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 21 May 1995.
  4. "El PSOE se hunde en las principales ciudades". El País (in Spanish). 21 May 1995.
  5. "El PP cree que la encuesta publicada por un diario madrileño tiene como objetivo alarmar a los electores e impulsar el voto de izquierda". ABC (in Spanish). 22 May 1995.
  6. "Preelectoral Municipales Madrid (Estudio nº 2172. Abril-Mayo 1995)". CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
  7. "Estudio CIS nº 2172. Ficha técnica" (PDF). CIS (in Spanish). 10 May 1995.
  8. "CiU gana por dos puntos al PSC aunque Maragall adelanta a Roca en valoración". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 23 April 1995.
  9. "Roca sale por delante en la batalla de Barcelona". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). 9 April 1995.
  10. "Una encuesta del PP otorga ligera ventaja a Roca y señala que Lacalle doblará sus votos". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 9 March 1995.
  11. "Roca toma ventaja sobre Maragall y el PP duplicaría sus concejales". ABC (in Spanish). 24 April 1995.
  12. "Encuesta de Gruppo para ABC/Resultados municipales". ABC (in Spanish). 6 May 1995.
  13. "Roca saca un punto de ventaja a Maragall pero el 39% todavía no sabe a quién votará". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 18 December 1994.
  14. "Un sondeo da ligera ventaja electoral a Roca sobre Maragall". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 7 November 1994.
Other
  1. "Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local". Law No. 7 of 2 April 1985. Boletín Oficial del Estado (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. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  3. "Electoral Results Consultation. European Parliament. June 1994. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  4. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. June 1993. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  5. "Electoral results. Parliament of Catalonia election 1992. Barcelona (Municipality)". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  6. "Election Results. Municipal Elections 1995. Barcelona". Government of Catalonia (in Catalan). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  7. "Local election results, 28 May 1995" (PDF). Central Electoral Commission (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  8. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. May 1995. Barcelona Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  9. "Eleccions municipals a Barcelona (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2017.
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