1999 Barcelona City Council election

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

1999 Barcelona City Council election

13 June 1999
All 41 seats in the City Council of Barcelona 21 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	1,352,781 1.1%
Turnout	697,091 (51.5%) 14.7 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Joan Clos Joaquim Molins Santiago Fisas Party PSC–PM CiU PP Leader since 26 September 1997 30 March 1998 22 January 1999 Last election 16 seats, 38.4% 13 seats, 30.6% 7 seats, 16.6% Seats won 20 10 6 Seat change 4 3 1 Popular vote 313,623 150,518 103,177 Percentage 45.2% 21.7% 14.9% Swing 6.8 pp 8.9 pp 1.7 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Jordi Portabella Imma Mayol Party ERC–EV–AM IC–V–EPM Leader since 1999 1998 Last election 2 seats, 5.1% 3 seats, 7.6% Seats won 3 2 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 45,278 43,999 Percentage 6.5% 6.3% Swing 1.4 pp 1.3 pp
Mayor before election Joan Clos PSC Elected Mayor Joan Clos PSC

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-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 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.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout						PI		Lead
1995 municipal election	13 Jun 1999	N/A	51.5	45.2 20	21.7 10	14.9 6	6.3 2	6.5 3	1.0 0	1.3 0	23.5
DYM/El Periódico[p 1][p 2]	6 Jun 1999	1,007	?	44.1 20	31.5 14	12.8 5	5.5 2	3.3 0	–	–	12.6
Opina/La Vanguardia[p 2][p 3]	1–2 Jun 1999	900	?	40.0 18/19	26.5 12	17.5 7/8	5.0 0/2	6.0 2	–	–	13.5
Eco Consulting/ABC[p 4]	24 May–2 Jun 1999	400	?	35.8 16/17	28.8 13	18.9 8/9	7.0 3	–	4.2 0	2.1 0	7.0
Sigma Dos/El Mundo[p 5][p 6]	27 May–1 Jun 1999	500	?	39.2 17/19	27.3 12/13	18.5 8/9	5.5 2	4.4 0	2.1 0	1.8 0	11.9
Demoscopia/El País[p 7]	26 May–1 Jun 1999	?	?	39.9 17/18	25.3 11	19.3 8/9	8.1 3	4.7 0/2	–	–	14.6
CIS[p 8][p 9]	9–19 May 1999	720	?	41.6 17/18	27.0 11/12	16.3 6/7	7.0 2/3	5.6 2	0.4 0	–	14.6
Opina/La Vanguardia[p 10]	29 Apr–1 May 1999	850	?	39.0 17/19	30.0 13/14	17.0 7/8	5.0 0/2	5.0 0/2	0.5 0	1.0 0	9.0
DYM/El Periódico[p 11][p 12]	24 Apr 1999	708	?	42.7 19/20	26.9 12	15.0 6/7	3.8 0	6.2 2	0.4 0	4.8 0/2	15.8
IC–EV[p 13][p 14]	20–22 Apr 1998	1,200	?	? 18	? 13	? 7	? 3	? 0	? 0	–	?
Barcelona City Council[p 15][p 16]	15–17 Dec 1997	720	?	41.0– 42.0 19	29.5– 30.5 13	? 7	? 2	? 0	? 0	–	11.5
1996 general election[3]	3 Mar 1996	N/A	77.0	34.4 15	29.8 13	22.7 10	7.7 3	4.1 0	–	–	4.6
1995 regional election[4]	19 Nov 1995	N/A	65.9	21.5 9	39.7 17	17.6 7	9.9 4	9.3 4	–	–	18.2
1995 municipal election	28 May 1995	N/A	66.2	38.4 16	30.6 13	16.6 7	7.6 3	5.1 2	–	–	7.8

Results

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

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Socialists' Party of Catalonia–Municipal Progress (PSC–PM)	313,623	45.19	+6.80	20	+4
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	150,518	21.69	–8.87	10	–3
	People's Party (PP)	103,177	14.87	–1.75	6	–1
	Republican Left of Catalonia–The Greens–Municipal Agreement (ERC–EV–AM)	45,278	6.52	+1.40	3	+1
	Initiative for Catalonia–Greens–Agreement for Municipal Progress (IC–V–EPM)	43,999	6.34	–1.27	2	–1
	United and Alternative Left (EUiA)	8,941	1.29	New	0	±0
	Party for Independence (PI)	6,671	0.96	New	0	±0
	The Greens–Green Group (EV–GV)	4,675	0.67	New	0	±0
	Ecologist Party of Catalonia (PEC)	1,079	0.16	New	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	798	0.11	–0.03	0	±0
	The Phalanx (FE)	644	0.09	New	0	±0
	Catalan State (EC)	561	0.08	New	0	±0
	Humanist Party of Catalonia (PHC)	517	0.07	+0.04	0	±0
	Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI)	235	0.03	New	0	±0
	European Nation State (N)	210	0.03	+0.01	0	±0
Blank ballots		13,130	1.89	+0.98
Total		694,056			41	±0
Valid votes		694,056	99.56	–0.22
Invalid votes		3,035	0.44	+0.22
Votes cast / turnout		697,091	51.53	–14.69
Abstentions		655,690	48.47	+14.69
Registered voters		1,352,781
Sources[5][6][7][8]

Popular vote PSC–PM   45.19% CiU   21.69% PP   14.87% ERC–EV–AM   6.52% IC–V–EPM   6.34% EUiA   1.29% Others   2.22% Blank ballots   1.89%

Seats PSC–PM   48.78% CiU   24.39% PP   14.63% ERC–EV–AM   7.32% IC–V–EPM   4.88%

References

Opinion poll sources

1. "Las encuestas coinciden en el aumento del PSC en Barcelona". El País (in Spanish). 7 June 1999.
2. "Sondejos". Generalitat de Catalunya (in Catalan). Retrieved 5 July 2017.
3. "Objetivo: convencer al indeciso". Vivir Barcelona (in Spanish). 7 June 1999.
4. "El futuro gobierno municipal de Barcelona pasa por el PP y los independentistas". ABC (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
5. "Barcelona: IC salva a Joan Clos". El Mundo (in Spanish). 2 June 1999.
6. "ELECCIONES 13-J /BALANCE DE LAS ENCUESTAS". El Mundo (in Spanish). 6 June 1999.
7. "Ascenso de Clos en Barcelona". El País (in Spanish). 7 June 1999.
8. "El PP conserva su poder municipal, autonómico y europeo, e IU se hunde". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 5 June 1999.
9. "Estudio CIS nº 2340. Ficha técnica" (PDF). CIS (in Spanish). 4 June 1999.
10. "Clos gana sin tener segura la alcaldía". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 8 May 1999.
11. "Una encuesta sitúa a Clos al borde de la mayoría absoluta". El País (in Spanish). 25 April 1999.
12. "Un sondeo da la victoria a Joan Clos". Vivir Tarragona (in Spanish). 25 April 1999.
13. "IC confía en seguir gobernando Barcelona con el PSC, amparándose en una encuesta". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 19 May 1998.
14. "El PSC e IC-EV tendrán mayoría en Barcelona, según una encuesta electoral". El País (in Spanish). 19 May 1998.
15. "La oposición critica la encuesta municipal". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 15 January 1998.
16. "Clos se crece". Vivir Tarragona (in Spanish). 14 January 1998.

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. Barcelona Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
4. "Electoral results. Parliament of Catalonia election 1995. Barcelona (Municipality)". resultats.dadeselectorals.gencat.cat (in Catalan). Government of Catalonia. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
5. "Election Results. Municipal Elections 1999. Barcelona". resultats.dadeselectorals.gencat.cat (in Catalan). Government of Catalonia. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
6. "Local election results, 13 June 1999" (PDF). www.juntaelectoralcentral.es (in Spanish). Central Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
7. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. June 1999. Barcelona Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
8. "Municipal elections in Barcelona since 1979". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 30 September 2017.