Spanish municipal elections, 2015

Spanish municipal elections, 2015

24 May 2015

67,515 seats in 8,122 local city councils Opinion polls Registered 35,099,122 1.1% Turnout 22,781,766 (64.9%) 1.3 pp   First party Second party Third party   Leader Mariano Rajoy Pedro Sánchez Albert Rivera Party PP PSOE C's Leader since 2 September 2003 26 July 2014 9 July 2006 Last election 26,507 c., 37.5% 21,766 c., 27.8% 7 c., 0.2% Seats won 22,744 20,858 1,516 Seat change 3,763 908 1,509 Popular vote 6,070,176 5,613,733 1,469,875 Percentage 27.1% 25.0% 6.6% Swing 10.4 pp 2.8 pp 6.4 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Cayo Lara Artur Mas Oriol Junqueras Party IU CiU ERC Leader since 14 December 2008 7 January 2002 17 September 2011 Last election 2,249 c., 6.4% 3,867 c., 3.5% 1,392 c., 1.2% Seats won 2,022 3,336 2,387 Seat change 227 531 995 Popular vote 1,089,300 669,781 513,529 Percentage 4.9% 3.0% 2.3% Swing 1.5 pp 0.5 pp 1.1 pp

The 2015 Spanish municipal elections were held on Sunday, 24 May 2015 all across the country. regional elections were held simultaneously in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities—regional elections in Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia were held in accordance with a different electoral calendar.

Electoral system

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:

Inhabitants	Seats
<100	3
101–250	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]

Background

After Podemos' success in the European Parliament election of 2014, the party decided not to directly contest the local elections scheduled for May 2015, but instead to focus on the regional and general elections to be held throughout 2015. Instead, they opted for the Guanyem Barcelona formula, popular unity municipal candidacies comprising different parties and social movements. The model was reproduced in many cities under the name Ganemos (Let's Win).^[2]

United Left, the traditional left-wing third party of Spain, also started debating on joining these local coalitions.^[3] However, this option was not well received by some party sectors, particularly their Madrid branch, who feared that the party would lose its identity if it joined these coalitions.^[4] The first attempt at a joint candidacy that included Podemos and United Left, among others, succeeded in Barcelona with Guanyem Barcelona, later Barcelona en Comú, under activist Ada Colau's leadership.^[5]

Another national party that decided to participate in most of these unitary candidacies was Equo,^[6] as well as minoritary parties like PUM+J, Socialist Alternative, Republican Alternative, ANOVA, or Initiative for Catalonia Greens.^[7][8][9] The unitary lists also included individuals from social movements like the anti-eviction PAH, 15M, o the so-called mareas (Spanish for "tides") made up of workers from different service sectors like teachers, Public Health System workers or young people forced to migrate as a consequence of the 2008–15 Spanish financial crisis.

Opinion polls

References

1. "Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime. Title III, Special Provisions for Municipal Elections.".
2. "Iglesias eludes the locals in order to arrive with strength to the general election" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 2014-09-22.
3. "United Left plans to join the 'Ganemos'" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 2014-08-17.
4. "Somos IU, against joining the Ganemos" (in Spanish). El País. 2014-11-06.
5. "ICV, EUiA, Podemos, Guanyem and Procés Constituent work towards a joint list" (in Spanish). Público. 2014-11-25.
6. "Equo joints the 'Ganemos' platforms for the locals" (in Spanish). El País. 2014-11-03.
7. "We are part of Ganemos Madrid" (in Spanish). Porunmundomasjusto.es. 2014-11-03.
8. "We are part of Ganemos Madrid" (in Spanish). La Voz de Galicia. 2015-04-23.
9. "Guanyem, ICV-EUiA and Podemos agree on their alliance in Barcelona" (in Spanish). El País. 2015-01-20.