# 1979 Barcelona City Council election

An election was held on Tuesday, 3 April 1979, to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality of Barcelona. All 43 seats in the City Council were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with local elections all throughout Spain.

## 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 civil and political rights.
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 eldest one would be elected.
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.

## Results

Summary of the 3 April 1979 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) | 272,512 | 34.05 | n/a | 16 | n/a |
| | Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) | 151,288 | 18.90 | n/a | 9 | n/a |
| | Convergence and Union (CiU) | 148,806 | 18.59 | n/a | 8 | n/a |
| | Centrists of Catalonia (CC–UCD) | 133,885 | 16.73 | n/a | 8 | n/a |
| | Republican Left of Catalonia–National Front of Catalonia (ERC–FNC) | 41,845 | 5.23 | n/a | 2 | n/a |
| | Democratic Coalition (CD) | 24,039 | 3.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Workers' Party of Catalonia–Communist Unity (PTC–UC) | 8,832 | 1.10 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Communist Movement–Organization of Communist Left (MC–OEC) | 4,259 | 0.53 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Socialist Party of National Liberation (PSAN) | 3,123 | 0.39 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Social Christian Democracy of Catalonia (DSCC) | 2,950 | 0.37 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) | 1,939 | 0.24 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Catalan Left Bloc (BEC) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Democratic Municipal Action (AMD) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | New Force (FN) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Republican Left (IR) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | List for Workers' Courts (LCO) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| | Workers' Revolutionary Organization (ORT) | 0 | 0.00 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
| Blank ballots | Blank ballots | 2,547 | 0.32 | n/a | | |
| Total | Total | 800,428 | | | 43 | n/a |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 800,428 | 99.63 | n/a | | |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 2,991 | 0.37 | n/a | | |
| Votes cast / turnout | Votes cast / turnout | 803,419 | 54.27 | n/a | | |
| Abstentions | Abstentions | 677,034 | 45.73 | n/a | | |
| Registered voters | Registered voters | 1,480,453 | | | | |
| Sources |||||||
Popular vote
PSC–PSOE
34.05%
PSUC
18.90%
CiU
18.59%
CC–UCD
16.73%
ERC–FNC
5.23%
CD
3.00%
PTC–UC
1.10%
Others
1.53%
Blank ballots
0.32% :
Seats
PSC–PSOE
37.21%
PSUC
20.93%
CiU
18.60%
CC–UCD
18.60%
ERC–FNC
4.65% :