1991 Madrid City Council election

The 1991 Madrid City Council election, also the 1991 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 26 May 1991, to elect the 4th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 57 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.

1991 Madrid City Council election

[[File:|50px|border |alt=|link=]]
26 May 1991
All 57 seats in the City Council of Madrid 29 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	2,524,947 6.3%
Turnout	1,493,617 (59.2%) 10.9 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader José María Álvarez del Manzano Juan Barranco Francisco Herrera Party PP PSOE IU Leader since 10 October 1986 19 January 1986 7 June 1990 Last election 20 seats, 34.0%[lower-alpha 1] 24 seats, 40.5% 3 seats, 6.1% Seats won 30 21 6 Seat change 10 3 3 Popular vote 702,834 510,556 144,640 Percentage 47.2% 34.3% 9.7% Swing 13.2 pp 6.2 pp 3.6 pp   Fourth party   Leader José Ramón Lasuén[1] Party CDS Leader since 22 March 1991 Last election 8 seats, 15.1% Seats won 0 Seat change 8 Popular vote 43,112 Percentage 2.9% Swing 12.2 pp
Mayor before election Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún CDS Elected Mayor José María Álvarez del Manzano PP

The People's Party (PP), People's Alliance new electoral brand, went on to win a City Council election in Madrid for the first time with an absolute majority of seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) continued its decline in the city and lost 3 seats and around 150,000 votes, while United Left (IU) recovered from its 1987 debacle and, for the first time since 1979, increased in seats and votes. The ruling Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), whose local leader Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún had announced his intention not to run for re-election, all but disappeared from the Council after failing to meet the required 5% threshold.

As a result of the election, José María Álvarez del Manzano was elected Mayor unopposed, a post he would retain until 2003, becoming the longest-serving democratically elected Mayor of Madrid.

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.[2] Elections to the local councils in Spain were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years.[3]

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-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.[2][3] 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.[2]

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.[3]

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. 29 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout							ARM	Lead
1991 municipal election	26 May 1991	N/A	59.2	34.3 21	[lower-alpha 2]	2.9 0	9.7 6	[lower-alpha 2]	47.2 30	1.6 0	12.9
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 1]	19 May 1991	?	?	31.7 20	[lower-alpha 2]	5.9 3	10.6 6/7	[lower-alpha 2]	43.3 27/28	–	11.6
Gruppo/ABC[p 2]	14–15 May 1991	1,000	?	32.7 20/21	[lower-alpha 2]	6.3 3	10.2 5/6	[lower-alpha 2]	42.6 26/27	4.5 0/3	9.9
Metra Seis/El Independiente[p 1]	12 May 1991	?	?	37.3 23/24	[lower-alpha 2]	6.0 3	9.0 5	[lower-alpha 2]	40.5 25/26	–	3.2
Demoscopia/PP[p 3]	9 May 1991	?	?	31.0– 33.0 19/21	[lower-alpha 2]	4.0– 6.0 0/3	10.0– 12.0 7/8	[lower-alpha 2]	43.0– 46.0 26/28	–	12.0– 13.0
Demoscopia/El País[p 1][p 4][p 5]	4–7 May 1991	?	?	32.9 21/22	[lower-alpha 2]	5.0 0/3	11.5 7	[lower-alpha 2]	41.5 26/28	–	8.6
Gruppo/ABC[p 6]	26 Apr–2 May 1991	1,000	?	33.6 21	[lower-alpha 2]	3.8 0	9.3 5/6	[lower-alpha 2]	43.4 27/28	5.4 3	9.8
PP[p 7]	12 Mar 1991	?	?	31.0	[lower-alpha 2]	–	–	[lower-alpha 2]	42.0	–	11.0
Demoscopia/Telemadrid[p 8]	20 Oct 1990	?	?	39.0	[lower-alpha 2]	17.8	–	[lower-alpha 2]	33.0	–	6.0
1989 general election[4]	29 Oct 1989	N/A	73.1	29.9 18	[lower-alpha 2]	10.6 6	14.5 8	[lower-alpha 2]	39.0 23	0.9 0	10.1
1989 EP election[5]	15 Jun 1989	N/A	59.2	32.2 21	[lower-alpha 2]	8.7 5	7.6 4	[lower-alpha 2]	32.1 21	6.8 4	0.1
1987 municipal election	10 Jun 1987	N/A	70.1	40.5 24	33.8 20	15.1 8	6.1 3	0.2 0	–	–	6.7

Results

← Summary of the 26 May 1991 City Council of Madrid election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	People's Party (PP)^1	702,834	47.23	+13.24	30	+10
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	510,556	34.31	–6.16	21	–3
	United Left (IU)	144,640	9.72	+3.61	6	+3
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	43,112	2.90	–12.15	0	–8
	Ruiz-Mateos Group (ARM)	23,404	1.57	New	0	±0
	The Greens (LV)	18,947	1.27	+0.59	0	±0
	The Ecologists (LE)	5,051	0.34	New	0	±0
	Green Union (UVE)^2	4,335	0.29	–0.01	0	±0
	Workers' Socialist Party (PST)	2,949	0.20	New	0	±0
	Madrilenian Independent Regional Party (PRIM)	2,610	0.18	New	0	±0
	Party of Madrid (PAM)	2,393	0.16	New	0	±0
	Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS)	1,962	0.13	–0.15	0	±0
	Citizen Independent Group Gray Panthers (ACI)	1,745	0.12	New	0	±0
	Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE)	859	0.06	–0.01	0	±0
	Left Platform (PCE (m–l)–CRPE)^3	740	0.05	–0.03	0	±0
	Alliance for the Republic (AxR)^4	728	0.05	–0.02	0	±0
	Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI)	605	0.04	New	0	±0
	Spanish Catholic Movement (MCE)	581	0.04	New	0	±0
	Commoners' Land (TC)	563	0.04	New	0	±0
	United Republican Action (ARU)	534	0.04	New	0	±0
	Carlist Party (PC)	341	0.02	New	0	±0
	Generational Integration (IG)	295	0.02	New	0	±0
	Political Natural Power Party (PPNP)	258	0.02	New	0	±0
Blank ballots		18,055	1.21	+0.18
Total		1,488,097			57	+2
Valid votes		1,488,097	99.63	+0.75
Invalid votes		5,520	0.37	–0.75
Votes cast / turnout		1,493,617	59.15	–10.91
Abstentions		1,031,330	40.85	+10.91
Registered voters		2,524,947
Sources[6][7][8]

Popular vote PP   47.23% PSOE   34.31% IU   9.72% CDS   2.90% ARM   1.57% LV   1.27% Others   1.78% Blank ballots   1.21%

Seats PP   52.63% PSOE   36.84% IU   10.53%

Notes

1. Aggregated data for AP and PDP in the 1987 election.
2. Within PP.

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Las elecciones de 26-5-91". CEPC (in Spanish). August 1991.
2. "El PP consolida su victoria en el Ayuntamiento de Madrid, donde el CDS obtendría tres concejales". ABC (in Spanish). 18 May 1991.
3. "Según una encuesta, el PP roza la mayoría absoluta". ABC (in Spanish). 9 May 1991.
4. "El ascenso del PP hace peligrar al PSOE en Madrid, Sevilla y Valencia". El País (in Spanish). 19 May 1991.
5. "Ficha técnica". El País (in Spanish). 19 May 1991.
6. "El PP, al borde de la mayoría absoluta en Madrid". ABC (in Spanish). 10 May 1991.
7. "Manzano, al borde de la mayoría absoluta, según una encuesta". ABC (in Spanish). 9 May 1991.
8. "Encuesta de Demoscopia". El País (in Spanish). 20 October 1990.

Other

1. "Juntas Electorales de Zona. Elecciones Locales 1991. Zona de Madrid. Candidaturas proclamadas" (PDF). Boletín Oficial de la Comunidad de Madrid (101): 50–57. 1991-04-30. ISSN 1989-4791.
2. "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.
3. "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.
4. "Electoral Results Consultation. Congress. October 1989. Madrid Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
5. "Electoral Results Consultation. European Parliament. June 1989. Madrid Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
6. "Local election results, 26 May 1991" (PDF). www.juntaelectoralcentral.es (in Spanish). Central Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
7. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. May 1991. Madrid Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
8. "Municipal elections in Madrid since 1979". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 30 September 2017.