Politics and Administration
Political administration of the municipal government is run by the Ayuntamiento (City Hall), whose members are elected every four years. The electoral roll is composed of all residents registered in Marbella who are over age 18 and a citizen of Spain or one of the other member states of the European Union. The Law on the General Election sets the number of councilors elected according to the population of the municipality; the Municipal Corporation of Marbella consists of 27 councilors.
From the first democratic elections after the adoption of the 1978 Spanish Constitution in 1979, and until 1991, all the mayors of Marbella were members of the El Partido Socialista Obrero Español (The Spanish Socialist Workers Party, or PSOE). Between 1991 and 2006 Marbella was governed by the neo-conservative Grupo Independiente Liberal (Independent Liberal Group, or GIL), with Jesús Gil y Gil as its head, who after his arrival in office stayed in power by controversial methods. His style of government—characterised by "town planning on demand" for developers, market speculation, and predatory incursions on the environment,— led to accusations of corruption. In 1999 he was convicted of crimes of embezzlement of public funds and falsifying public documents.
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