1983 Seville City Council election

The 1983 Seville City Council election, also the 1983 Seville municipal election, was held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 2nd City Council of the municipality of Seville. All 31 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.

1983 Seville City Council election

8 May 1983
All 31 seats in the City Council of Seville 16 seats needed for a majority
Registered	454,851 6.3%
Turnout	274,080 (60.3%) 3.3 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Manuel del Valle — — Party PSOE–A AP–PDP–UL PCE Leader since 1983 — — Last election 8 seats, 24.8% 0 seats, 1.2%[lower-alpha 1] 6 seats, 18.4% Seats won 19 10 2 Seat change 11 10 4 Popular vote 153,002 80,542 24,099 Percentage 56.2% 29.6% 8.9% Swing 31.4 pp 28.4 pp 9.5 pp
Mayor before election Luis Uruñuela PSA–PA Elected Mayor Manuel del Valle PSOE–A

Electoral system

The City Council of Seville (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Sevilla) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Seville, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly.[1][2][3]

Voting for the local assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in the municipality of Seville and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights. 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][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, the eldest one would be elected.[1][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 fifteen days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one-thousandth of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election—with a compulsory minimum of 500 signatures—disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.[3]

Results

← Summary of the 8 May 1983 City Council of Seville election results →

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of Andalusia (PSOE–A)	153,002	56.22	+31.44	19	+11
	People's Coalition (AP–PDP–UL)^1	80,542	29.60	+28.43	10	+10
	Communist Party of Spain (PCE)	24,099	8.86	–9.57	2	–4
	Socialist Party of Andalusia–Andalusian Party (PSA–PA)	8,080	2.97	–20.51	0	–8
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	3,191	1.17	New	0	±0
	Spanish Communist Workers' Party (PCOE)	1,460	0.54	–0.11	0	±0
	United Candidacy of Workers (CUT)	540	0.20	New	0	±0
	Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD)	n/a	n/a	–27.09	0	–9
Blank ballots		1,221	0.45	+0.32
Total		272,135			31	±0
Valid votes		272,135	99.29	–0.21
Invalid votes		1,945	0.71	+0.21
Votes cast / turnout		274,080	60.26	+3.28
Abstentions		180,771	39.74	–3.28
Registered voters		454,851
Sources[4][5][6]

Popular vote PSOE–A   56.22% AP–PDP–UL   29.60% PCE   8.86% PSA–PA   2.97% CDS   1.17% Others   0.73% Blank ballots   0.45%

Seats PSOE–A   61.29% AP–PDP–UL   32.26% PCE   6.45%

Notes

1. Data for CD in the 1979 election.

References

1. "Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de elecciones locales". Law No. 39 of 17 July 1978. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
2. "Ley Orgánica 6/1983, de 2 de marzo, por la que se modifican determinados artículos de la Ley 39/1978, de 17 de julio, de Elecciones Locales". Organic Law No. 6 of 2 March 1983. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
3. "Real Decreto-ley 20/1977, de 18 de marzo, sobre Normas Electorales". Royal Decree-Law No. 20 of 18 March 1977. Boletín Oficial del Estado (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
4. "Statistic Yearbook of the city of Seville. 1999". www.sevilla.org (in Spanish). City Council of Seville. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
5. "Electoral Results Consultation. Municipal. May 1983. Seville Municipality". www.infoelectoral.mir.es (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
6. "Municipal elections in Seville since 1979". historiaelectoral.com (in Spanish). Electoral History. Retrieved 30 September 2017.