← 2007 22 May 2011 Turnout 402,400 (69.4%)
1.0 pp 21 seats, 56.7% 12 seats, 33.8% Date 22 May 2011 | Registered 579,733 4.8% 1991 3 October 2010 208,727 86,440 | |
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The 2011 Valencia City Council election was held on Sunday, 22 May 2011, to elect the 9th Valencia City Council, the unicameral local legislature of the municipality of Valencia. At stake were all 33 seats in the City Council, determining the Mayor of Valencia.
The election resulted in a strong victory for the ruling People's Party (PP), which renewed the absolute majority it commanded in the City Council. As a result, incumbent Mayoress Rita Barberá was able to be re-elected for an unprecedented sixth term in office, after 20 years in charge. On the other hand, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) plummeted to barely above 20% of the share, obtaining its worst result in a City Council election up until that point after losing 4 seats, 12 percentage points and 54,000 votes. Among the causes of the PSOE's debacle were the growing unpopularity of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the perceived inability of the PSOE national government to cope with the economic crisis and the general perception at the time that the PP would do better.
Also entering the City Council were the Compromís coalition, made up of the Valencian Nationalist Bloc (Bloc), Initiative of the Valencian People (IdPV) and Greens Equo of the Valencian Country (Verds), which emerged as the third political force in the city; and United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV), the regional branch of IU, which had been left out of the City Council in the previous election.
Electoral system
The number of seats in the Valencia 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:
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 2011 election was 809,267, the Valencia City Council size was set to 33 seats.
All City Council members were elected in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Valencia 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.