A municipal election was held in Valencia on 3 April 1979 to elect the 1st City Council of the municipality. All 33 seats in the City Council were up for election. It was held concurrently with local elections all across Spain.
Under the 1978 Constitution, the governance of municipalities in SpainâÂÂpart of the country's local government systemâÂÂwas centered on the figure of city councils (), local corporations with independent legal personality composed of a mayor, a government council and an elected legislative assembly. In the case of Valencia, the top-tier administrative and governing body was the City Council of Valencia.
Voting for local assemblies was based on universal suffrage, comprising all Spanish nationals over 18 years of age, registered and residing in the municipality and with full civil and political rights.
Local councillors were elected using the D'Hondt method and closed-list proportional voting, with a five percent-threshold of valid votes (including blank ballots) in each municipality. Each municipality was a multi-member constituency, with a number of seats based on the following scale:
The law did not provide for by-elections to fill vacant seats; instead, any vacancies arising after the proclamation of candidates and during the legislative term were filled by the next candidates on the party lists or, when required, by designated substitutes.
The mayor was indirectly elected by the local assembly. A legal clause required candidates to earn the vote of an absolute majority of councillors, or else the candidate of the most-voted party was automatically appointed to the post. In the event of a tie, the appointee was determined by lot.
The term of city councils in Spain expired four years after the date of their previous election. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the day after the expiration date of the city councils, with election day taking place on the sixty-fifth day from publication.
Elections to local councils were officially called on 27 January 1979 with the publication of the corresponding decree in the BOE, setting election day for 3 April.
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, alliances and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form an alliance ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant electoral commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of a determined amount of the electors registered in the municipality for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates. In the case of Valencia, as its population was between 300,001 and 1,000,000, at least 2,000 signatures were required.
Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election: