The1931 Spanish local elections were held on 12 April throughout allmunicipalities in Spain to elect 80,472councillors. The elections were perceived as a plebiscite on themonarchy ofAlfonso XIII. Afterrepublican parties and their allies came away with a convincing victory, the king left the country and theSecond Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Aprovisional government was formed shortly thereafter, withnational elections scheduled for later in the year.

Since 1923, Spain had been a dictatorship underMiguel Primo de Rivera with the approval of Alfonso XIII, the reigning monarch at the time. After thefall 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 aplebiscite on the Spanish monarchy, as no national elections or polls had been held since 1923.

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:^[1]

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 usinglimited 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 wascompulsory and on the basis ofuniversal 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.^[1][2]

The results shown were extracted from the 1931 Spanish Statistical Annuary.^[3]

Results showed a win of republicans by a large margin inAsturias,Aragon, andCatalonia. Monarchists got their best results in theBalearic Islands,Andalusia, andExtremadura. The republicans had a majority in more than four-fifths of theprovincial capitals. In the city ofBarcelona, the largest city by that time, they obtained more than the 75% of the seats. These were the results in theprovince capitals plusCeuta andMelilla:^[4][5]

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 forIgualada. InBerga, where they got tied with the monarchists in number of seats.^[3] In the most important cities, the results were as follows:^[6]

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 theSpanish tricolor. Alfonso XIII left Spain and exiled to Rome, without formallyabdicating. A provisional government was formed and two months later a general election was called.

• 1931 Spanish general election
• Dictablanda of Dámaso Berenguer

• 1931 elections in Spain
• Municipal elections in Spain

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