Spanish municipal elections, 1983

Spanish local elections, 1983

← 1979 8 May 1983 1987 →
67,312 seats in 8,052 local councils 1,024 seats in 38 provincial deputations 153 seats in 3 Juntas Generales in the Basque Country 137 seats in 7 cabildos in the Canary Islands
Registered	27,474,920 3.3%
Turnout	17,874,791 (65.1%) 2.6 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Felipe González Manuel Fraga Jordi Pujol Party PSOE AP–PDP–UL CiU Leader since 13 October 1974 9 October 1976 19 September 1978 Last election 12,059 seats, 28.2% 2,339 seats, 3.0% 1,756 seats, 3.1% Seats won 23,325 20,671 3,215 Seat change 11,266 18,332 1,459 Popular vote 7,683,197 4,573,005 747,677 Percentage 43.0% 25.6% 4.2% Swing 14.8 pp 22.6 pp 1.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Gerardo Iglesias Xabier Arzalluz Adolfo Suárez Party PCE EAJ/PNV CDS Leader since 10 December 1982 18 January 1980 29 July 1982 Last election 3,727 seats, 13.1% 1,079 seats, 2.2% Did not contest Seats won 2,529 1,324 1,299 Seat change 1,198 245 1,299 Popular vote 1,513,023 405,741 308,275 Percentage 8.5% 2.3% 1.7% Swing 4.6 pp 0.1 pp New party

The 1983 Spanish local elections were held on Sunday, 8 May 1983, throughout all 8,052 Spain municipalities, simultaneously with regional elections in 13 of the 17 autonomous communities—all except for Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia. All 67,312 councillors were up for election, as well as 153 seats of the 3 Basque Juntas Generales, 137 seats of the 7 Canarian cabildos and the indirectly-elected 1,024 seats of the 38 provincial deputations.

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:

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.

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