# 1999 Madrid City Council election

The 1999 Madrid City Council election, also the 1999 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 13 June 1999, to elect the 6th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 53 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, as well as the 1999 European Parliament election.
The People's Party (PP) won an absolute majority of seats for a third consecutive time, but, for the first time since the 1987 election the party lost votes and seats. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) maintained its second place but reverted the decline it had been suffering since 1983. PSOE gains came at the expense of United Left (IU), which lost nearly half of its votes and seats.
As a result, José María Álvarez del Manzano was elected as Mayor of Madrid for a third term in office.

## Electoral system

The City Council of Madrid (Spanish: Ayuntamiento de Madrid) was the top-tier administrative and governing body of the municipality of Madrid, composed of the mayor, the government council and the elected plenary assembly. Elections to the local councils in Spain were fixed for the fourth Sunday of May every four years. Voting for the local assembly was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age, registered in the municipality of Madrid and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-national European citizens and those whose country of origin allowed Spanish nationals to vote in their own elections by virtue of a treaty.
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each local council. 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 appointee would be determined by lot.
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 ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they were seeking election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. In the case of Madrid, as its population was over 1,000,001, at least 8,000 signatures were required.

## Opinion polls

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 poll. When available, seat projections determined by the polling organisations are displayed below (or in place of) the percentages in a smaller font; 27 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid (28 until 1 January 2003).
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Turnout | | | | Lead |
| 1999 municipal election | 13 Jun 1999 | — | 60.1 | 49.5 28 | 36.0 20 | 8.7 5 | 13.5 |
| Sigma Dos/El Mundo | 27 May–2 Jun 1999 | 500 | ? | 51.1 27/29 | 37.8 20/22 | 8.3 4 | 13.3 |
| Eco Consulting/ABC | 24 May–2 Jun 1999 | 400 | ? | 53.1 29/31 | 32.2 17/19 | 11.1 6 | 20.9 |
| Demoscopia/El País | 26 May–1 Jun 1999 | ? | ? | 53.3 29 | 34.6 18 | 11.7 6 | 18.7 |
| CIS | 3–19 May 1999 | ? | ? | 51.9 28/29 | 29.8 16/17 | 15.0 8 | 22.1 |
| Tele 5 | 4 May 1999 | ? | ? | ? 29/30 | ? 18 | ? 6/7 | ? |
| Demoscopia/CEIM | 12–26 Apr 1999 | ? | ? | 50.6 28/29 | 34.5 18 | ? 6/7 | 16.1 |
| Demoscopia/CEIM | 1 Mar 1999 | ? | ? | ? 29 | ? 15 | ? 9 | ? |
| Demoscopia/PDNI | 21 Jan–1 Feb 1999 | ? | ? | 50.4 27 | 40.3 22 | 7.9 4 | 10.1 |
| PSOE | 27 Jan 1999 | ? | ? | ? 26 | ? 20 | ? 7 | ? |
| Demoscopia/CEIM | 16–27 Apr 1998 | ? | ? | 50.0 | 31.0 | 15.0 | 19.0 |
| Demoscopia/CEIM | 16–24 Sep 1997 | 1,096 | ? | 50.6 29 | 33.0 18 | 14.0 8 | 17.6 |
| 1996 general election | 3 Mar 1996 | — | 80.2 | 52.8 (30) | 29.3 (17) | 15.1 (8) | 23.5 |
| 1995 municipal election | 28 May 1995 | — | 71.2 | 52.7 30 | 27.8 16 | 15.6 9 | 24.9 |

## Results

← Summary of the 13 June 1999 City Council of Madrid election results → :
| Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | Popular vote | Popular vote | Popular vote | Seats | Seats |
| Parties and alliances | Parties and alliances | Votes | % | ±pp | Total | +/− |
| | People's Party (PP) | 734,921 | 49.48 | –3.23 | 28 | –2 |
| | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party–Progressives (PSOE–p) | 534,700 | 36.00 | +8.16 | 20 | +4 |
| | United Left (IU) | 128,731 | 8.67 | –6.89 | 5 | –4 |
| | The Greens (LV) | 10,462 | 0.70 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | The Greens–Green Group (LV–GV) | 8,974 | 0.60 | –0.13 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Centrist Union–Democratic and Social Centre (UC–CDS) | 6,653 | 0.45 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Alliance for National Unity (AUN) | 3,500 | 0.24 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Union Community of Madrid (UCMA) | 2,658 | 0.18 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Humanist Party (PH) | 1,906 | 0.13 | +0.05 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Madrilenian Independent Regional Party (PRIM) | 1,695 | 0.11 | –0.01 | 0 | ±0 |
| | The Phalanx (FE) | 1,580 | 0.11 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) | 1,488 | 0.10 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI) | 1,208 | 0.08 | +0.05 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Natural Law Party (PLN) | 1,188 | 0.08 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Commoners' Land–Castilian Nationalist Party (TC–PNC) | 1,099 | 0.07 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Republican Action (AR) | 860 | 0.06 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Spanish Democratic Party (PADE) | 790 | 0.05 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| Blank ballots | Blank ballots | 43,021 | 2.90 | +1.15 | | |
| Total | Total | 1,485,434 | | | 53 | –2 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,485,434 | 99.42 | –0.18 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 8,656 | 0.58 | +0.18 | | |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | 1,494,090 | 60.06 | –11.15 | | |
| Abstentions | Abstentions | 993,652 | 39.94 | +11.15 | | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 2,487,742 | | | | |
| Sources |||||||
Popular vote
PP
49.48%
PSOE–p
36.00%
IU
8.67%
Others
2.97%
Blank ballots
2.90% :
Seats
PP
52.83%
PSOE–p
37.34%
IU
9.43% :