1931 Spanish local elections

none December 2017 The 1931 Spanish local elections were held on 12 April throughout all municipalities in Spain to elect 80,472 councillors. The elections were perceived as a plebiscite on the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. After republican parties and their allies came away with a convincing victory, the king left the country and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. A provisional government was formed shortly thereafter, with national elections scheduled for later in the year. Background Since 1923, Spain had been a dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera with the approval of Alfonso XIII, the reigning monarch at the time. After the fall of the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and the failure of his successor, Dámaso Berenguer, to establish another dictatorship, the new cabinet appointed by the king in 1931 decided to hold new local elections for the first time in nine years. Although they were local elections, they were perceived as a plebiscite on the Spanish monarchy, as no national elections or polls had been held since 1923. Electoral system The number of seats of each council was determined by the population count. According to the 1877 municipal law, the population-seat relationship on each municipality was to be established on the following scale:http://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1877/277/A00039-00046.pdf Ley municipal 1877 Gaceta de Madrid Population Seats Population Seats Population Seats <500 6 16,001–18,000 21 55,001–60,000 36 501–800 7 18,001–20,000 22 60,001–65,000 37 801–1,000 8 20,001–22,000 23 65,001–70,000 38 1,001–2,000 9 22,001–24,000 24 70,001–75,000 39 2,001–3,000 10 24,001–26,000 25 75,001–80,000 40 3,001–4,000 11 26,001–28,000 26 80,001–85,000 41 4,001–5,000 12 28,001–30,000 27 85,001–90,000 42 5,001–6,000 13 30,001–32,000 28 90,001–95,000 43 6,001–7,000 14 32,001–34,000 29 95,001–100,000 44 7,001–8,000 15 34,001–36,000 30 100,001–120,000 45 8,001–9,000 16 36,001–38,000 31 120,001–140,000 46 9,001–10,000 17 38,001–40,000 32 140,001–160,000 47 10,001–12,000 18 40,001–45,000 33 160,001–180,000 48 12,001–14,000 19 45,001–50,000 34 180,001–200,000 49 14,001–16,000 20 50,001–55,000 35 >200,001 50 The 1907 election law established that councillors should be elected in districts consisting of 4 members, although 3 to 7 member districts were also allowed. Voters had to choose multiple candidates using limited voting, which allows a voter to vote for fewer candidates than members have to be elected. Candidates winning a plurality of votes in each district were elected. If the number of candidates was equal or fewer than the number of seats to be filled, candidates were automatically proclaimed without an election. Voting was compulsory and on the basis of universal manhood suffrage, with males over twenty-five and at least a two-year residency in a municipality required to vote. Mayors were elected indirectly by the city or town council on the first session after the election.http://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1907/222/A00584-00592.pdf Ley electoral 1907 Gaceta de Madrid Results Overall results thumb|Winners in number of seats by province and provincial capital.Republicans, socialists, and communists: #e6c3ef <50%#d498e2 >50% Monarchists: #f0ffb3 <50%#e5ff7f >50% Other: #e8e8e8 <50%#cccccc >50% The results shown were extracted from the 1931 Spanish Statistical Annuary.http://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1907/222/A00584-00592.pdf Anuario Estadístico de España 1931 482 CandidatesSeatsTotal seatsAutomaticallyproclaimedElectedNo.%No.%No.% Republicans 34,368 42.71 13,940 46.77 20,428 40.32 Socialists 4,813 5.98 887 2.98 3,926 7.75 Communists 67 0.08 10 0.03 57 0.11 Monarchists 19,035 23.65 6,065 20.35 12,970 25.60 Other 15,198 18.89 6,043 20.28 9,155 18.07 Unknown 6,991 8.69 2,859 9.59 4,132 8.16 Total 80,472 100.00 29,804 100.00 50,668 100.00 Results showed a win of republicans by a large margin in Asturias, Aragon, and Catalonia. Monarchists got their best results in the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and Extremadura. The republicans had a majority in more than four-fifths of the provincial capitals. In the city of Barcelona, the largest city by that time, they obtained more than the 75% of the seats. These were the results in the province capitals plus Ceuta and Melilla:http://www.ine.es/inebaseweb/pdfDispacher.do?td=150824&ext=.pdf Anuario Estadístico de España 1931 483Hoyos y Vinent, José María de. Mi testimonio. Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1962. Municipality Seats Republicans Monarchists Rep Soc Com Other Total Mon Other Total A Coruña 39 33 1 34 5 5 Albacete 32 14 4 18 14 14 Alicante 39 15 14 29 10 10 Almería 35 24 4 28 7 7 Ávila 19 8 8 11 11 Badajoz 33 11 10 21 12 12 Barcelona 50 34 4 38 12 Regionalist League of Catalonia 12 Bilbao [es] 46 12 12 35 3 8 Basque Nationalist Party 11 Burgos 30 10 4 14 16 16 Cáceres 24 14 14 10 10 Cádiz 40 0 40 40 Castelló de la Plana 30 24 2 26 4 4 Ceuta 35 16 10 26 9 9 Ciudad Real 24 4 12 16 8 8 Cuenca 21 6 5 11 10 10 Córdoba 44 19 8 27 17 17 Girona 23 12 3 15 3 5 Regionalist League of Catalonia 8 Granada 45 17 18 35 6 4 10 Guadalajara 20 6 8 14 5 1 6 Huelva 33 13 10 23 2 8 10 Huesca 20 14 14 4 2 6 Jaén 32 11 11 22 10 10 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 39 8 8 16 20 3 23 León 26 11 7 18 7 1 8 Lleida 30 23 23 7 Regionalist League of Catalonia 7 Logroño 28 17 3 20 7 5 liberal democrats and 2 centrists 1 "Catholic" 8 Lugo 28 3 4 7 21 21 Madrid [es] 50 16 15 31 18 1 19 Málaga 47 31 5 1 37 10 10 Melilla 32 19 9 28 4 4 Murcia 46 18 4 2 24 19 3 22 Ourense 23 6 4 3 13 10 10 Oviedo [es] 40 27 27 13 13 Palencia 24 11 5 16 8 8 Palma 41 5 4 9 27 5 32 Pamplona 29 9 6 15 14 14 Pontevedra 27 7 2 2 5 16 9 2 11 Salamanca 31 14 5 19 12 12 San Sebastián 39 18 7 25 8 6 Basque Nationalist Party 14 Santa Cruz de Tenerife 36 22 3 25 11 11 Santander 40 16 9 25 15 15 Segovia 21 8 3 11 10 10 Seville 50 25 8 33 17 17 Soria 17 7 1 8 7 2 9 Tarragona 28 17 2 19 6 3 Regionalist League of Catalonia and an independent (Marquess of Muller) 9 Teruel 19 7 5 12 7 7 Toledo [es] 25 12 5 17 3 5 8 Valencia [es] 50 32 32 9 9 18 Valladolid 44 16 10 26 18 18 Vitoria 31 16 3 19 4 Traditionalist Communion 8 3 seats won by the PNV, 2 seats won by "The Commercial Defence", 2 seats won by "Catholic Independents" and 1 seat won by a "Catholic" 12 Zamora 22 7 7 1 15 5 2 7 Zaragoza 47 26 6 32 15 15 Total 1,724 767 290 20 11 1,088 468 168 636 Catalonia thumb|Majority of seats in the judicial districts capitals: #e5ff7f Monarchists#d59be3 Republicans#ffffff No data thumb|Largest party by judicial district capital: #FFB232 ERC#37c837 PCR Republican Catalanist Party#800080 PRR#e580ff PRDF#e3d7f4 Other republicans#3771c8 LR#00ccff Other monarchists CandidatesSeatsTotal seatsAutomaticallyproclaimedElectedNo.%No.%No.% Republicans 6,001 68.42 2,782 71.65 3,219 65.86 Socialists 133 1.52 19 0.49 114 2.33 Communists 10 0.11 2 0.05 8 0.16 Regionalist League 1,773 20.21 759 19.55 1,014 20.74 Monarchists 399 4.55 120 3.09 279 5.71 Unknown 455 5.19 201 5.18 254 5.20 8,771 100.00 3,883 100.00 4,888 100.00 The results showed very favourable results for the republicans in Catalonia. They won every major city (cities over 10,000 and capitals of judicial districts) except for Igualada. In Berga, where they got tied with the monarchists in number of seats. In the most important cities, the results were as follows:https://issuu.com/municipals1934/docs/2-eleccions_municipals_de_1931 Les eleccions municipals de 1934 a Catalunya. Apèndix 1: Les eleccions municipals de 1931 Soler Becerro Raimon 18 July 2023 6 March 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20230718161058/https://issuu.com/municipals1934/docs/2-eleccions_municipals_de_1931 dead Municipality Seats Republicans Monarchists ERC PCR Republican Catalanist Party PRR PRDF Other Total LR Other Total Arenys de Mar 13 13 13 0 Badalona 32 9 8 17 15 15 Balaguer 13 9 9 4 4 Barcelona 50 25 12 1 38 12 12 Berga 14 7 7 7 7 Cervera 10 4 2 6 2 2 4 El Vendrell 12 7 7 5 5 Falset 11 7 7 1 3 4 Figueres 20 12 6 1 19 1 1 Gandesa 11 7 7 4 4 Girona 23 11 4 15 5 3 8 Granollers 18 13 13 5 5 Igualada 18 8 8 10 10 La Bisbal d'Empordà 12 2 1 5 8 4 4 La Seu d'Urgell 11 7 7 4 4 Les Borges Blanques 12 8 8 4 4 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat 26 8 1 2 4 15 11 11 Lleida 30 16 5 1 22 8 8 Manresa 27 9 1 7 17 7 3 10 Mataró 26 6 6 5 17 9 9 Montblanc 12 8 8 4 4 Olot 18 11 11 1 6 7 Puigcerdà 10 7 7 3 3 Reus 29 11 5 5 21 8 8 Sabadell 33 3 1 5 13 22 11 11 Sant Feliu de Llobregat 13 9 4 13 0 Santa Coloma de Farners 12 8 8 3 1 4 Solsona 11 7 7 4 4 Tarragona 28 7 10 2 19 2 7 9 Terrassa 31 8 5 8 21 1 9 10 Tortosa 30 20 20 2 8 10 Tremp 10 7 1 8 2 2 Valls 12 8 2 10 2 2 Vic 19 9 2 11 7 1 8 Vilafranca del Penedès 21 3 4 12 1 20 1 1 Vilanova i la Geltrú 21 15 15 6 6 Basque Country MunicipalitySeatsSocialist-Republican ConjunctionMonarchistsOthersPSOERepANVOtherTotalMonCTOtherTotalPNVPCEOthersTotal Abanto y Ciérvana 17741 Independent 1241 Independent 5Bermeo 195 Anti-Monarchist Bloc 51414Bilbao [es] 47101172833142 Unknown affiliation 16Eibar 191081811Erandio 183114 Anti-Monarchist Bloc 981 Independent 9Irun 20112 Of which, 9 Radical Socialist Republican Party 1377Güecho 212222152 1 Independent and 1 Unknown affiliation 17Portugalete 1812 Anti-Monarchists 126 Right-wing 6San Sebastián 3724 Radical Socialist Republican Party 248 Monarchist-Regionalist 855Sestao 227323 Left Bloc 1543 Right-wing 7Tolosa 182 Anti-Monarchists 233310 Unknown affiliation 13Vergara 17441313Vitoria 30 3 13 By party: 5 PRRS, 4 AR, 2 PRR, 1 PRDF and 1 Autonomous Republican Party of Álava 1642 2 Catholic independents and 1 Catholic 635 3 Autonomists and 2 from the "Commercial Defence" 8 Sources: For Biskay: , https://www.euskadi.eus/informacion/resultados-segunda-republica-elecciones-municipales-1931-1933-vizcaya-municipios/web01-a2haukon/es/ Resultados Municipales Bilbao, For Guipuzkoa: https://www.euskadi.eus/informacion/resultados-segunda-republica-elecciones-municipales-1931-1933-guipuzcoa-municipios/web01-a2haukon/es/ Resultados Municipales Guipuzcoa For Álava: https://www.euskadi.eus/informacion/resultados-segunda-republica-elecciones-municipales-1931-1933-guipuzcoa-municipios/web01-a2haukon/es/ Resultados Municipales Álava Aftermath On 14 April, two days after the election, in the cities where the republicans won the election large crowds of people celebrated the victory on the streets. In Barcelona, Eibar, Madrid, Valencia, and other cities the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Eibar was the first city to fly the Spanish tricolor. Alfonso XIII left Spain and exiled to Rome, without formally abdicating. A provisional government was formed and two months later a general election was called. See also 1931 Spanish general election Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer Footnotes "n" References Category:1931 elections in Spain Category:Municipal elections in Spain Category:Politics of the Second Spanish Republic Category:April 1931 in Europe