# 1987 Barcelona City Council election

The 1987 Barcelona City Council election, also the 1987 Barcelona municipal election, was held on Wednesday, 10 June 1987, to elect the 3rd City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43 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 1987 European Parliament election.

## Electoral system

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. 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 Barcelona and in full enjoyment of their political rights, as well as resident non-nationals 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 Barcelona, 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; 22 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Barcelona.
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Turnout | | | | | | | | IC | Lead |
| 1987 municipal election | 10 Jun 1987 | — | 68.9 | 43.6 21 | 35.5 17 | – | | 5.2 2 | 2.3 0 | 7.6 3 | 3.4 0 | 8.1 |
| Sigma Dos/Diario 16 | 4 Jun 1987 | ? | ? | ? 19/21 | ? 14/16 | – | | – | – | ? 5/6 | ? 2/3 | ? |
| DYM/Cambio 16 | 4 Jun 1987 | ? | ? | ? 21/23 | ? 13/14 | – | | – | ? 1/2 | ? 2/4 | ? 2/3 | ? |
| ABC | 2 Jun 1987 | ? | ? | ? 20/22 | ? 17/19 | – | | – | – | ? 3/5 | – | ? |
| Central de Campo/PSC | 1–2 Jun 1987 | 800 | ? | ? 23/24 | ? 14/15 | – | | – | – | ? 3/4 | ? 2 | ? |
| Demoscopia/El País | 22–26 May 1987 | ? | 68 | 32.9 15 | 33.6 16 | – | | 2.8 0 | 5.9 2 | 15.5 7 | 7.7 3 | 0.7 |
| DYM/La Vanguardia | 27–29 Apr 1987 | 1,001 | ? | 46.8 23 | 29.1 14 | – | | 4.2 0 | 2.7 0 | 7.6 3 | 6.8 3 | 17.7 |
| Line Staff/CiU | 4–10 Apr 1987 | 1,478 | ? | 39.1 | 30.0 | – | | 2.7 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 9.1 |
| CIS | 25 Mar–5 Apr 1987 | 802 | ? | 48.6 25 | 29.5 15 | – | | – | – | 5.8 3 | – | 19.1 |
| 1986 general election | 22 Jun 1986 | — | 67.4 | 34.4 (18) | 34.1 (18) | 14.7 (7) | | 3.1 (0) | 4.9 (0) | | 4.2* (0) | 0.3 |
| 1984 regional election | 29 Apr 1984 | — | 64.4 | 26.4 (13) | 49.0 (25) | 10.3 (5) | 5.0 (0) | 4.7 (0) | – | | – | 22.6 |
| 1983 municipal election | 8 May 1983 | — | 67.4 | 45.8 21 | 27.4 13 | 13.0 6 | 6.9 3 | 3.9 0 | 0.9 0 | | – | 18.4 |
| (*) Results for Union of the Catalan Left. |||||||||||||

## Results

← Summary of the 10 June 1987 City Council of Barcelona 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 | +/− |
| | Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC–PSOE) | 400,280 | 43.61 | –2.19 | 21 | ±0 |
| | Convergence and Union (CiU) | 325,463 | 35.46 | +8.09 | 17 | +4 |
| | People's Alliance (AP)$^1$ | 69,419 | 7.56 | –5.42 | 3 | –3 |
| | Initiative for Catalonia (IC)$^2$ | 47,406 | 5.16 | –2.83 | 2 | –1 |
| | Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) | 31,028 | 3.38 | +2.44 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) | 21,236 | 2.31 | –1.55 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Green Alternative–Ecologist Movement of Catalonia (AV–MEC) | 3,916 | 0.43 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Ecologist Party of Catalonia–VERDE (PEC–VERDE) | 3,116 | 0.34 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity (PTE–UC) | 2,078 | 0.23 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Spanish Phalanx of the CNSO (FE–JONS) | 1,388 | 0.15 | +0.02 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (PORE) | 1,152 | 0.13 | +0.03 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Republican Popular Unity (UPR)$^3$ | 1,069 | 0.12 | +0.03 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Humanist Platform (PH) | 948 | 0.10 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Communist Unification of Spain (UCE) | 869 | 0.09 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Internationalist Socialist Workers' Party (POSI) | 636 | 0.07 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Social Democratic Party of Catalonia (PSDC) | 566 | 0.06 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Communist Workers' League (LOC) | 428 | 0.05 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | People's Democratic Party (PDP) | 0 | 0.00 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| Blank ballots | Blank ballots | 6,879 | 0.75 | +0.32 | | |
| Total | Total | 917,877 | | | 43 | ±0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 917,877 | 99.23 | +0.87 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 7,159 | 0.77 | –0.87 | | |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | 925,036 | 68.93 | +1.51 | | |
| Abstentions | Abstentions | 417,013 | 31.07 | –1.51 | | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 1,342,049 | | | | |
| Sources |||||||
| Footnotes: $^1$ People's Alliance results are compared to People's Coalition totals in the 1983 election.$^2$ Initiative for Catalonia results are compared to the combined totals of Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia and Party of the Communists of Catalonia in the 1983 election.$^3$ Republican Popular Unity results are compared to Popular Struggle Coalition totals in the 1983 election. |||||||
Popular vote
PSC–PSOE
43.61%
CiU
35.46%
AP
7.56%
IC
5.16%
CDS
3.38%
ERC
2.31%
Others
1.76%
Blank ballots
0.75% :
Seats
PSC–PSOE
48.84%
CiU
39.53%
AP
6.98%
IC
4.65% :