1983 Barcelona City Council election

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][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 Barcelona 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:

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]

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. 22 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout							Lead
1983 municipal election	8 May 1983	N/A	67.4	45.8 21	6.9 3	27.4 13	–	3.9 0	13.0 6	18.4
Sofemasa/El País[p 1][p 2]	23–26 Apr 1983	?	?	43.7 20/21	8.9 4/5	22.1 11/12	–	5.6 2	11.0 5	21.6
1982 general election[4]	28 Oct 1982	N/A	81.0	40.9 22	4.5 0	23.3 12	1.6 0	4.5 0	18.6 9	17.6
1980 regional election[5]	20 Mar 1980	N/A	57.9	20.9 10	16.1 8	28.7 15	10.2 5	10.8 5	3.9[lower-alpha 2] 0	7.8
1979 municipal election	3 Apr 1979	N/A	54.3	34.0 16	18.9 9	18.6 8	16.7 8	5.2 2	3.0[lower-alpha 3] 0	15.1

Opinion poll sources

Other