Madrid City Council election, 2003

25 May 2003

All 55 seats in the Madrid City Council 28 seats needed for a majority

Opinion polls
Registered	2,484,328 0.2%
Turnout	1,711,613 (68.9%) 8.9 pp
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón	Trinidad Jiménez	Inés Sabanés
Party	PP	PSM–PSOE	IU
Leader since	16 October 2002	2 June 2002	23 June 1998
Last election	28 seats, 49.5%	20 seats, 36.0%	5 seats, 8.7%
Seats won	30	21	4
Seat change	2	1	1
Popular vote	874,264	625,148	123,015
Percentage	51.3%	36.7%	7.2%
Swing	1.8 pp	0.7 pp	1.5 pp

Mayor before election

José María Álvarez del Manzano
PP

Elected Mayor

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón
PP

The 2003 Madrid City Council election was held on Sunday, 25 May 2003, to elect the 7th Madrid City Council, the unicameral local legislature of the municipality of Madrid. At stake were all seats in the City Council, determining the Mayor of Madrid. The number of members increased from 53 to 55 compared to the previous election.

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 number of seats in the Madrid City Council was determined by the population count. According to the municipal electoral law, the population-seat relationship on each municipality was to be established on the following scale:

Inhabitants	Seats
<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

Additionally, for populations greater than 100,000, 1 seat was to be added per each 100,000 inhabitants or fraction, according to the most updated census data, and adding 1 more seat if the resulting seat count gives an even number. As the updated population census for the 2003 election was 3,016,788, the Madrid City Council size was set to 55 seats.

All City Council members were elected in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Madrid municipality, using the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation system. Voting was on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the municipality (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) were entitled to enter the seat distribution.

The Spanish municipal electoral law established a clause stating that, if no candidate was to gather an absolute majority of votes to be elected as mayor of a municipality, the candidate of the most-voted party would be automatically elected to the post.^[1]

Opinion polls

Vote

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. Poll results use the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. However, if such date is unknown, the date of publication will be given instead.

Date	Polling Firm/Source	PP	PSOE	IU	LV	Others	Lead
Date	Polling Firm/Source					Others	Lead
25 May 2003	Municipal Election	51.3	36.7	7.2	1.6	3.2	14.6
Exit polls
18 May	Opina	47.0	40.0	7.0		6.0	7.0
17 May	PP	49.3	39.0	7.0	3.5	1.2	10.3
8–13 May	Sigma-2	47.5	39.7	8.3	2.4	2.1	7.8
12–13 May	Vox Pública	47.0	40.5	7.5	2.5	2.5	6.5
22 Mar–28 Apr	CIS	45.4	35.9	10.3		8.4	9.5
22–24 Apr	Ipsos-Eco	47.0	40.7	6.7		5.6	6.3
11 Mar	IMOP	45.1	41.4	6.2	2.0	5.3	3.7
2003
25–26 Nov	Opina	49.0	42.0	6.0	1.5	1.5	7.0
18–25 Oct	Demoscopia	54.1	35.2	5.2	4.8	0.7	18.9
29 Sep	Opina	49.0	42.0	6.5		2.5	7.0
6–13 Sep	Ipsos-Eco	49.0	37.7	7.6		5.7	11.3
2002
23 May–8 Jun	Inner	47.0	40.0	10.0		3.0	7.0
2001
12 Mar 2000	General Election	55.4	30.9	8.8	0.8	4.1	24.5
2000
13 Jun 1999	Municipal Election	49.5	36.0	8.7	0.7	5.1	13.5

Seats

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 28 seats were required for an absolute majority in the Madrid City Council.

28 seats needed for majority (01/01/2003–25/05/2003)
Date	Polling Firm/Source	PP	PSOE	IU	LV	Others
Date	Polling Firm/Source					Others
25 May 2003	Municipal Election	30	21	4	0	0
25 May	Sigma-2	27 / 29	22 / 23	4 / 5	0	0
Exit polls
18 May	Opina	27 / 28	23 / 24	4	0	0
17 May	PP	28 / 29	22 / 23	3 / 4	0	0
8–13 May	Sigma-2	27 / 28	22 / 24	4 / 5	0	0
12–13 May	Vox Pública	27 / 28	23 / 24	4	0	0
22 Mar–28 Apr	CIS	27	22	6	0	0
22–24 Apr	Ipsos-Eco	27 / 28	24	3 / 4	0	0
11 Mar	IMOP	27	25	3	0	0
2003
25–26 Nov	Opina	27	23	3	0	0
6–13 Sep	Ipsos-Eco	28	21	4	0	0
2002
23 May–8 Jun	Inner	26	22	5	0	0
2001
12 Mar 2000	General Election	(31)	(17)	(5)	(0)	(0)
2000
13 Jun 1999	Municipal Election	28	20	5	0	0

Results

← Summary of the 25 May 2003 Madrid City Council election results →
Party		Vote			Seats

Party		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	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 (IU)	123,015	7.22	1.45	4	1

	The Greens (LV)	26,448	1.55	0.85	0	±0
	The Greens of the Madrid Community (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 Falange (FE)	2,174	0.13	0.02	0	±0
	Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)	2,136	0.13	0.32	0	±0

Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote		7,061	0.41	–	±0
	Independent Spanish Falange (FEI)	1,113	0.07	0.01	±0
	Humanist Party (PH)	1,022	0.06	0.07	±0
	Madrilian Independent Regional Party (PRIM)	903	0.05	0.06	±0
	Communal Land-Castilian Nationalist Party (TC-PNC)	820	0.05	0.02	±0
	Another Democracy is Possible (OtraDem)	810	0.05	New	±0
	Spanish Democratic Party (PADE)	801	0.05	±0.00	±0
	Authentic Falange (FA)	635	0.04	New	±0
	Immigrants with Rights, Equality and Obligations (INDIO)	479	0.03	New	±0
	Republican Federation (FR)	478	0.03	0.03	±0

	Blank ballots	27,304	1.60	1.30

Total		1,704,141	100.00		55	2

Valid votes		1,704,141	99.56	0.14
Invalid votes		7,472	0.44	0.14
Votes cast / turnout		1,711,613	68.90	8.86
Abstentions		772,715	31.10	8.86
Registered voters		2,484,328

Source: Ministry of the Interior

Vote share

PP			51.30%
PSOE			36.68%
IU			7.22%
LV			1.55%
Others			1.65%
Blank ballots			1.60%

City council seats

PP			54.55%
PSOE			38.18%
IU			7.27%

References

↑ "Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, of the General Electoral Regime. Title III, Special Provisions for Municipal Elections.".

Elections in Madrid

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