1983 Madrid municipal election
A municipal election was held in Madrid on Sunday, 8 May 1983, to elect the 2nd City Council of the municipality. All 57 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with regional elections in thirteen autonomous communities and local elections all across Spain.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party won with an absolute majority of 30 councillors and 48.7% of the vote, the only time to date it would do so. The People's Coalition, the electoral alliance led by the People's Alliance and including the People's Democratic Party and the Liberal Union, consolidated its gains made in the 1982 Spanish general election and emerged as the second political force in the city, with 38.0% and 23 seats in the City Council. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Spain vote fell as a result of PSOE's growth, losing over half of its councillors down to 4. The Union of the Democratic Centre had collapsed in the October general election and was disbanded in early 1983. Several UCD split parties such as Liberal Democratic Party or former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez' Democratic and Social Centre contested the election but failed to win any representation.
As a result of the election, Enrique Tierno Galván, was re-elected as Mayor of Madrid for a second term in office. Tierno Galván would die halfway throughout his term of natural causes, being substituted by party colleague Juan Barranco.
Overview
Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in Spain—part of the country's local government system—was centered on the figure of city councils, local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly. In the case of Madrid, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Madrid.Electoral system
Voting for local assemblies was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality of Madrid and in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights.Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional voting system, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes being applied in each municipality. Each municipality constituted a multi-member constituency, entitled a number of seats 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 law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacated seats; instead, any vacancies that occurred after the proclamation of candidates and into the legislative term were to be covered by the successive candidates in the list and, when required, by the designated substitutes.
The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly. A legal clause required candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party was to be automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee was to be determined by lot.
Election date
The term of city councils in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the day after the date of expiry of the city councils, with election day taking place between the fifty-fifth and the seventieth day from publication.Elections to local councils were officially called on 10 March 1983 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 8 May.