An ayuntamiento is the body charged with the government and administration of the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

not bound to the regime of ''

concejo abierto The concejo abierto (literally: "open council") is a system of government and administration of some very small Spanish municipalities and sub-municipal territorial units. An example of direct democracy, the system allows for the existence of a m ...

'' ('open council'). The ayuntamiento is one of the bodies charged with

local government in Spain Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

. The ayuntamiento is made up of the mayor, deputy mayors and councillors and, in larger municipalities, an executive committee. Councillors are elected by universal suffrage and secret ballot and they in turn elect the mayor.

Organisation

An ayuntamiento is made up of a mayor () and the elected councillors, who compose the plenary (), the deliberative body. In municipalities with over 5,000 inhabitants, there is also an executive committee ( or or ). Such a committee is optional for smaller municipalities, at the discretion of the plenary or the regulations of the ayuntamiento. The executive committee is made up of a number of the elected councillors. The ayuntamiento follows a collegiate-representative model, with features of a

Corporatism Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...

such as the fact that the mayor is president of both the plenary and the executive. While the plenary retains the vote of censure to remove the mayor, the system confers much power upon the mayor, which has become a point of controversy. The organizational system is described in the 1985 Local Government Act. An 11/1999 Law superseding some features of the 1985 Act set increased powers for the mayor, but the plenary also gained more scrutiny over these powers. The plenary lacks legislative autonomy. The municipalities of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

have special rules, regulated by the 22/2006 Law of the Capital in the case of the Ayuntamiento of Madrid and by the Municipal Charter of Barcelona, approved in the 22/1998 Catalan law in the case of Barcelona.

Electoral process

Municipal elections are held every four years on the same date for all municipalities in Spain. Councilors are allotted using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

for proportional representation with the exception of municipalities with under 100 inhabitants where

block voting Block or bloc voting refers to a class of electoral systems where multiple candidates are elected simultaneously. They do not guarantee minority representation and allow a group of voters (a voting bloc) to ensure that only their preferred candi ...

is used instead. The number of councilors is determined by the population of the municipality; the smallest municipalities having 5, and the largest – Madrid – having 57. Unlike other European countries the mayor is not directly elected. They are invested by the councillors. The

indirect election An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

, stated in the 1978 Local Elections Act was confirmed in the General Electoral System Act of 1985. The method by which the mayor is elected is as follows. If no head of list of each electoral list commands an absolute majority of the votes of the councillors in the plenary, the head of list of the most voted list becomes mayor.

Informational notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{Cite journal, title=Electoral Systems and Voting Procedures at Local Level, publisher=

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

, journal=Local and Regional Authorities in Europe, date=January 1999, issue=68, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s97xJsykGqwC&pg=PA35, page=35, isbn=9287139830, ref={{harvid, Electoral Systems, 1999 __NOTOC__ Local government in Spain Forms of local government