# 2003 Madrid City Council election

The 2003 Madrid City Council election, also the 2003 Madrid municipal election, was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 7th City Council of the municipality of Madrid. All 55 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.
The People's Party (PP) under President of the Community of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, who was succeeding the retiring José María Álvarez del Manzano, managed to revert the near-tie situation predicted by opinion polls between his party and the PSOE-IU bloc. Gallardón went on to win a comfortable absolute majority both in votes and seats, reverting the 1999 result in which it had seemed that party's support had begun to decline. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) under Trinidad Jiménez obtained its best result since it was ousted from power in 1989, despite it not being enough to recover the mayoralty. United Left (IU) continued on its long-term decline and lost another seat, scoring its worst result since 1987.
A remarkable event for this election was that both main parties' contenders (Ruiz-Gallardón and Jiménez) were cousins, despite belonging to opposing parties.

## 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; 28 seats were required for an absolute majority in the City Council of Madrid (27 until 1 January 2003).

### Color key

Exit poll
| Polling firm/Commissioner | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Turnout | | | | LV | Lead |
| 2003 municipal election | 25 May 2003 | — | 68.9 | 51.3 30 | 36.7 21 | 7.2 4 | 1.6 0 | 14.6 |
| Sigma Dos/Antena 3 | 25 May 2003 | ? | ? | ? 27/29 | ? 22/23 | ? 4/5 | – | ? |
| Ipsos–Eco/RTVE | 25 May 2003 | ? | ? | ? 27/28 | ? 22/23 | ? 5/6 | – | ? |
| Insight/La Razón | 19 May 2003 | ? | ? | 47.2 28 | 39.8 22 | 9.1 5 | – | 7.4 |
| Opina/El País | 18 May 2003 | ? | ? | 47.0 27/28 | 40.0 23/24 | 7.0 4 | – | 7.0 |
| Demoscopia/PP | 17 May 2003 | ? | ? | 48.5– 50.0 28/29 | 38.5– 39.5 22/23 | 6.5– 7.5 3/4 | 3.0– 4.0 0 | 10.0– 10.5 |
| Sigma Dos/El Mundo | 8–13 May 2003 | 500 | ? | 47.5 27/28 | 39.7 22/24 | 8.3 4/5 | 2.4 0 | 7.8 |
| Vox Pública/El Periódico | 12–13 May 2003 | 801 | ? | 46.5– 47.5 27/28 | 40.0– 41.0 23/24 | 7.0– 8.0 4 | 2.0– 3.0 0 | 6.5 |
| CIS | 22 Mar–28 Apr 2003 | 714 | 76.7 | 45.4 27 | 35.9 22 | 10.3 6 | – | 9.5 |
| Ipsos–Eco/ABC | 22–24 Apr 2003 | ? | ? | 47.0 27/28 | 40.7 24 | 6.7 3/4 | – | 6.3 |
| IMOP/PSOE | 11 Mar 2003 | 513 | 66 | 45.1 27 | 41.4 25 | 6.2 3 | 2.0 0 | 3.7 |
| Sondaxe/La Voz de Galicia | 18 Jan 2003 | ? | ? | 54.4 30 | 36.5 20 | 7.2 3 | – | 17.9 |
| Opina/El País | 25–26 Nov 2002 | 800 | ? | 49.0 27 | 42.0 23 | 6.0 3 | 1.5 0 | 7.0 |
| Demoscopia/CEIM | 18–25 Oct 2002 | 2,471 | ? | 54.1 | 35.2 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 18.9 |
| Opina/El País | 29 Sep 2002 | ? | ? | 49.0 | 42.0 | 6.5 | – | 7.0 |
| Ipsos–Eco/ABC | 6–13 Sep 2002 | ? | ? | 49.0 28 | 37.7 21 | 7.6 4 | – | 11.3 |
| Inner Line/PSOE | 29 Jun 2002 | 1,200 | ? | 46.0– 47.0 | 40.0– 41.0 | 8.0– 9.0 | – | 6.0 |
| Demoscopia/IU | 27 Jun 2002 | 1,200 | 65.7 | 48.0 | 39.1 | 11.0 | – | 8.9 |
| Inner Line/PSOE | 23 May–8 Jun 2001 | 1,200 | ? | 47.0 26 | 40.0 22 | 10.0 5 | – | 7.0 |
| 2000 general election | 12 Mar 2000 | — | 74.2 | 55.4 (31) | 30.9 (17) | 8.8 (5) | 0.7 (0) | 24.5 |
| 1999 municipal election | 13 Jun 1999 | — | 60.1 | 49.5 28 | 36.0 20 | 8.7 5 | 0.7 0 | 13.5 |

## Results

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 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) | 874,264 | 51.30 | +1.82 | 30 | +2 |
| | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) | 625,148 | 36.68 | +0.68 | 21 | +1 |
| | United Left of the Community of Madrid (IUCM) | 123,015 | 7.22 | –1.45 | 4 | –1 |
| | The Greens (LV) | 26,448 | 1.55 | +0.85 | 0 | ±0 |
| | The Greens of the Community of Madrid (LVCM) | 9,944 | 0.58 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Republican Left (IR) | 3,553 | 0.21 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Family and Life Party (PFyV) | 3,094 | 0.18 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | The Phalanx (FE) | 2,174 | 0.13 | +0.02 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) | 2,136 | 0.13 | –0.32 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Independent Spanish Phalanx (FEI) | 1,113 | 0.07 | –0.01 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Humanist Party (PH) | 1,022 | 0.06 | –0.07 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Madrilenian Independent Regional Party (PRIM) | 903 | 0.05 | –0.06 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Commoners' Land–Castilian Nationalist Party (TC–PNC) | 820 | 0.05 | –0.02 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Another Democracy is Possible (ODeP) | 810 | 0.05 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Spanish Democratic Party (PADE) | 801 | 0.05 | ±0.00 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Authentic Phalanx (FA) | 635 | 0.04 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Immigrants with Rights, Equality and Obligations (INDIO) | 479 | 0.03 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| | Republican Federation (FR) | 478 | 0.03 | New | 0 | ±0 |
| Blank ballots | Blank ballots | 27,304 | 1.60 | –1.30 | | |
| Total | Total | 1,704,141 | | | 55 | +2 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,704,141 | 99.56 | +0.14 | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 7,472 | 0.44 | –0.14 | | |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | 1,711,613 | 68.93 | +8.87 | | |
| Abstentions | Abstentions | 771,510 | 31.07 | –8.87 | | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 2,483,123 | | | | |
| Sources |||||||
Popular vote
PP
51.30%
PSOE
36.68%
IUCM
7.22%
LV
1.55%
Others
1.64%
Blank ballots
1.60% :
Seats
PP
54.55%
PSOE
38.18%
IUCM
7.27% :