Barcelona City Council election, 1995

Barcelona City Council election, 1995

28 May 1995

All 41 seats in the Barcelona City Council 21 seats needed for a majority Opinion polls Registered 1,368,148 0.9% Turnout 906,038 (66.2%) 10.7 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Pasqual Maragall Miquel Roca Enrique Lacalle Party PSC CiU PPC 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 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 1995 Barcelona City Council election was held on Sunday, 28 May 1995, to elect the 5th Barcelona City Council, the unicameral local legislature of the municipality of Barcelona. At stake were all seats in the City Council, determining the Mayor of Barcelona. The number of members decreased from 43 to 41 compared to the previous election.

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 number of seats in the Barcelona 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:

Inhabitants	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. As the updated population census for the 1995 election was 1,630,867, the Barcelona City Council size was set to 41 seats.

All City Council members were elected in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Barcelona municipality, 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]

Opinion polls

Vote

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. When a specific poll does not show a data figure for a party, the party's cell corresponding to that poll is shown empty.

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	PPC	ICV	ERC	Others	Lead
28 May 1995	Municipal Election	38.4	30.6	16.6	7.6	5.1	1.7	7.8
Exit polls
18–19 May	Vox Pública	34.2	32.0	15.2	10.2	4.4	4.0	2.2
17 May	Opina	37.9	35.3	11.1	8.8	4.0	2.9	2.6
18 Apr	Opina	38.0	40.0	8.5	7.0	5.0	1.5	2.0
29–30 Mar	Vox Pública	31.9	37.6	13.1	8.8	4.5	4.1	5.7
1995
12–13 Dec	Opina	38.1	39.3	9.8	7.8	5.0	0.0	1.2
6 Nov	Avui	34.8	35.8				29.4	1.0
1994
1993
1992
26 May 1991	Municipal Election	42.9	34.1	9.8	6.4	2.6	4.2	8.8

Seats

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 68 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Parliament of Catalonia.

21 seats needed for majority

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PSC	CiU	PPC	ICV	ERC	Others
28 May 1995	Municipal Election	16	13	7	3	2	0
Exit polls
18–19 May	Vox Pública	15 / 16	14 / 15	7	4	0	0
17 May	Opina	16 / 17	15 / 16	5	3 / 4	0	0
18 Apr	Opina	15 / 16	16 / 17	4 / 5	3 / 4	0 / 2	0
29–30 Mar	Vox Pública	14 / 15	17	5 / 6	4	0	0
20 Feb	Atelier-V	15	15	8	2	1	0
1995
12–13 Dec	Opina	16 / 17	17	4	3	0 / 1	0
6 Nov	Avui	16 / 17	16 / 18	6 / 7	3	0 / 2	0
1994
1993
1992
26 May 1991	Municipal Election	20	16	4	3	0	0

Results

← Summary of the 28 May 1995 Barcelona City Council election results →

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC-PSOE)	347,083	38.39	4.56	16	4
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	276,276	30.56	3.50	13	3
	People's Party of Catalonia (PPC)	150,284	16.62	6.83	7	3
	Initiative for Catalonia-The Greens (IC-EV)	68,813	7.61	1.19	3	±0
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC)	46,272	5.12	2.55	2	2
	Ecologist Alternative of Catalonia (AEC)	3,304	0.37	New	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	1,256	0.14	0.70	0	±0

Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote		2,472	0.27	–	0	±0
	Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR)	726	0.08	0.01	0	±0
	Civic Platform-New Socialist Party (PC-NPS)	571	0.06	New	0	±0
	Workers' Revolutionary Party (PRT)	376	0.04	0.13	0	±0
	Spain Independents' Platform (PIE)	320	0.04	New	0	±0
	Humanist Platform (PH)	298	0.03	New	0	±0
	European National State (N)	181	0.02	New	0	±0

	Blank ballots	8,263	0.91	0.01
Total		904,023	100.00		41	2
Valid votes		904,023	99.78	0.08
Invalid votes		2,015	0.22	0.08
Votes cast / turnout		906,038	66.22	10.71
Abstentions		462,110	33.78	10.71
Registered voters		1,368,148
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Vote share
PSC-PSOE			38.39%
CiU			30.56%
PPC			16.62%
IC-EV			7.61%
ERC			5.12%
Others			0.78%
Blank ballots			0.91%

City council seats
PSC-PSOE			39.00%
CiU			31.71%
PPC			17.07%
IC-EV			7.32%
ERC			4.88%

References

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