1999 Madrid City Council election

The 1999 Madrid City Council election, also the 1999 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 6th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 53 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, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.

1999 Madrid City Council election

13 June 1999
All 53 seats in the City Council of Madrid 27 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,488,296 1.6%
Turnout	1,494,090 (60.1%) 11.2 pp
Leader José María Álvarez del Manzano Fernando Morán Inés Sabanés Party PP PSOE–p IU Leader since 10 October 1986 28 June 1998 23 June 1998 Last election 30 seats, 52.7% 16 seats, 27.8% 9 seats, 15.6% Seats won 28 20 5 Seat change 2 4 4 Popular vote 734,921 534,700 128,731 Percentage 49.5% 36.0% 8.7% Swing 3.2 pp 8.2 pp 6.9 pp
Mayor before election José María Álvarez del Manzano PP Elected Mayor José María Álvarez del Manzano PP

The People's Party (PP) won an absolute majority of seats for a third consecutive time, but, for the first time since the 1987 election the party lost votes and seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) maintained its second place but reverted the decline it had been suffering since 1983. PSOE gains came at the expense of United Left (IU), which lost nearly half of its votes and seats.

As a result, José María Álvarez del Manzano was elected as Mayor of Madrid for a third term in office.

Electoral system

The City Council of Madrid (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Madrid) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Madrid, 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 Madrid and in full enjoyment of their political rights, 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. 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 Madrid, 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. 27 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid (28 until 1 January 2003).

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout				Lead
1999 municipal election	13 Jun 1999	N/A	60.1	49.5 28	36.0 20	8.7 5	13.5
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 1]	27 May–2 Jun 1999	500	?	51.1 27/29	37.8 20/22	8.3 4	13.3
Eco Consulting/ABC[p 2]	24 May–2 Jun 1999	400	?	53.1 29/31	32.2 17/19	11.1 6	20.9
Demoscopia/El País[p 3][p 4]	26 May–1 Jun 1999	?	?	53.3 29	34.6 18	11.7 6	18.7
CIS[p 5][p 6]	3–19 May 1999	?	?	51.9 28/29	29.8 16/17	15.0 8	22.1
Tele 5[p 7]	4 May 1999	?	?	? 29/30	? 18	? 6/7	?
Demoscopia/CEIM[p 8]	12–26 Apr 1999	?	?	50.6 28/29	34.5 18	? 6/7	16.1
Demoscopia/CEIM[p 9]	1 Mar 1999	?	?	? 29	? 15	? 9	?
Demoscopia/PDNI[p 10]	21 Jan–1 Feb 1999	?	?	50.4 27	40.3 22	7.9 4	10.1
PSOE[p 11]	27 Jan 1999	?	?	? 26	? 20	? 7	?
Demoscopia/CEIM[p 12]	16–27 Apr 1998	?	?	50.0	31.0	15.0	19.0
Demoscopia/CEIM[p 13]	16–24 Sep 1997	1,096	?	50.6 29	33.0 18	14.0 8	17.6
1996 general election[3]	3 Mar 1996	N/A	80.2	52.8 30	29.3 17	15.1 8	23.5
1995 municipal election	28 May 1995	N/A	71.2	52.7 30	27.8 16	15.6 9	24.9

Results

← Summary of the 13 June 1999 City Council of Madrid election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Party (PP)	734,921	49.48	–3.23	28	–2
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party–Progressives (PSOE–p)	534,700	36.00	+8.16	20	+4
	United Left (IU)	128,731	8.67	–6.89	5	–4
	The Greens (LV)	10,462	0.70	New	0	±0
	The Greens–Green Group (LV–GV)	8,974	0.60	–0.13	0	±0
	Centrist Union–Democratic and Social Centre (UC–CDS)	6,653	0.45	New	0	±0
	Alliance for National Unity (AUN)	3,500	0.24	New	0	±0
	Union Community of Madrid (UCMA)	2,658	0.18	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	1,906	0.13	+0.05	0	±0
	Madrilenian Independent Regional Party (PRIM)	1,695	0.11	–0.01	0	±0
	The Phalanx (FE)	1,580	0.11	New	0	±0
	Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)	1,488	0.10	New	0	±0
	Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI)	1,208	0.08	+0.05	0	±0
	Natural Law Party (PLN)	1,188	0.08	New	0	±0
	Commoners' Land–Castilian Nationalist Party (TC–PNC)	1,099	0.07	New	0	±0
	Republican Action (AR)	860	0.06	New	0	±0
	Spanish Democratic Party (PADE)	790	0.05	New	0	±0
Blank ballots		43,021	2.90	+1.15
Total		1,485,434			53	–2
Valid votes		1,485,434	99.42	–0.18
Invalid votes		8,656	0.58	+0.18
Votes cast / turnout		1,494,090	60.06	–11.15
Abstentions		993,652	39.94	+11.15
Registered voters		2,487,742
Sources[4][5][6][7]

Popular vote PP   49.48% PSOE–p   36.00% IU   8.67% Others   2.97% Blank ballots   2.90%

Seats PP   52.83% PSOE–p   37.34% IU   9.43%

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Manzano: suma su tercera mayoría y sigue". El Mundo (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
2. "El PP aumenta sus votos en Madrid y repite mayoría absoluta en el Ayuntamiento". ABC (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
3. "Manzano comienza a perder apoyo". El País (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
4. "El éxito del éxito". El País (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
5. "Ruiz-Gallardón aumenta su mayoría y el alcalde pierde dos ediles, según el CIS". El País (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
6. "El PP conserva su poder municipal, autonómico y europeo, e IU se hunde". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
7. "El PP mantiene su mayoría en la región, según un sondeo de Tele 5". El País (in Spanish). 4 May 1999.
8. "El PP mantiene la mayoría absoluta en la capital y la Comunidad, según una encuesta". El País (in Spanish). 1 May 1999.
9. "Mayoría absoluta del PP en la Comunidad y el Ayuntamiento". ABC (in Spanish). 1 March 1999.
10. "La izquierda está a un escaño del PP en la región, según un sondeo". El País (in Spanish). 20 February 1999.
11. "Mayoría absoluta para Álvarez del Manzano, según un sondeo del PP". ABC (in Spanish). 30 January 1999.
12. "La izquierda se acerca al PP en intención de voto, según una encuesta". El País (in Spanish). 19 May 1998.
13. "Los madrileños valoran más a Barranco que al alcalde, según un sondeo". El País (in Spanish). 6 November 1997.

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. Congress. March 1996. Madrid Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
4. "Local election results, 13 June 1999" (PDF). Central Electoral Commission (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 February 2018.
5. "1991-2003 Municipal Elections. Madrid" (PDF). www.madrid.es (in Spanish). City Council of Madrid. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
6. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. June 1999. Madrid Municipality". Ministry of the Interior (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2017.
7. "Elecciones Municipales en Madrid (1979 - 2015)". Historia Electoral.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 September 2017.