Municipal elections in Barcelona


Municipal elections in Barcelona are held every four years to elect the city council. The mayor is elected indirectly by the councillors on the first plenary session of the term.

Overview

The basic level of Spanish local government are the municipalities. The city of Barcelona constitutes a municipality. The reigning institution in Barcelona is called Ajuntament de Barcelona, and it's formed by the mayor, the government and the legislature or ciy council.
Local elections in Spain are regulated by the LOREG law. Municipal elections are held every 4 years on the last Sunday of May, on all the municipalities of Spain at the same time, together with other regional elections and other local level elections, such as comarcal or provincial council elections. If European elections are scheduled to take place on the same dates, local elections must be held the same day with European Parliament elections.
The size of the legislature is determined by the population count on 1 January before the election. In Barcelona, the city council has 41 members.
Voters only elect the members of the city council. The mayor is elected indirectly.
Voting is non-compulsory. Local councillors are elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation, with a threshold of 5 percent of valid votes, which include blank ballots.
The mayor is elected on the first plenary session of the term by the city councillors in a single round election. If any candidate obtains an absolute majority of the votes, the candidate of the most voted party in the last election is elected as a mayor. After the plenary session, the Mayor chooses the councillors that are going to be in the government.
Last election was held on 24 May 2015. Next election is scheduled to take place in 2019.

Results

2015 election

Historical composition of the City Council

1901–1939

Until Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, only one half of the council was renewed at every election. The numbers below indicate the total seats after the election.

After 1979