Let’s look at the maths

As I said yesterday, there are 13 seats on the Bigastro council that are up for grabs and three parties hoping to gain them.

To have overall control, one of the parties must gain seven or more seats leaving the other five to the other two parties. In the current mandate the Socialists hold eight seats which gives them a comfortable lead over the PP who currently have four (they originally had five but Aurelio Murcia is no longer a councillor for the PP).

If the leading party were to win less than seven seats, then the other two parties could effectively form a coalition. If that happened, then the mayor of the town could be outvoted in debates. So, in the event of the winning party having either six or five seats, they would need to form a coalition with either of the other two parties to maintain control of the council.

We have all seen the problems that the coalition in England between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats has caused. It is hard to imagine, in Bigastro which two parties could happily work together on all of the issues.

That is why, for this election, perhaps more so than in the past, every single vote will count.