Portuguese local election, 2009

Portuguese local elections, 2009
Portugal
11 October 2009

All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes
All 2,078 local government councils
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Manuela Ferreira Leite José Sócrates Jerónimo de Sousa
Party PSD PS CDU
Last election 158 mayors, 39.9% 109 mayors, 35.9% 32 mayors, 10.9%
Popular vote 2,146,587 2,087,831 537,329
Percentage 38.8% 37.7% 9.7%
Swing Decrease 1.1% Increase 1.8% Decrease 1.2%
Mayors 139 132 28
Mayors +/– Decrease 19 Increase 23 Decrease 4
Councillors 873 921 174
Councillors +/– Decrease 38 Increase 68 Decrease 29
Portugal

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Portugal

The Portuguese local election of 2009 took place on 11 October. The election consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is elected mayor, another election for the Municipal Assembly and a last one for the lower-level Parish Assembly, whose winner is elected parish president. This last was held separately in the more than 4,000 parishes around the country.

The election resulted almost in a tie between the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party, in which the Social Democrats lost almost 20 municipalities and also lost a considerable number of coucilours. The Socialists, despite losing in number of municipal chambers, were the party that most councilors elected, a situation that has not happened since 1993 when in these elections the PSD elected more councilors than the PS but the PS elected more mayors than the PSD. The Socialists won also a decisive victory in Lisbon where the incumbent mayor, António Costa, defeated the former mayor and Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes by a considerable margin.

The Social Democratic Party lost some municipalities to the Socialists, but they did hold on municipalities like Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Sintra and Coimbra. The People's Party won only one municipality, Ponte de Lima, continuing its decline in comparison, for example, with the 36 mayors achieved in 1976.

On the left, the Democratic Unitarian Coalition, led by the Communist Party, obtained their worst result in history, winning less than 10% of the vote and losing 4 municipalities including Beja and Évora. The Left Bloc kept the presidency of its single municipality, Salvaterra de Magos.

The election was again marked by several victories of independent candidates, most of them former Socialist, Social Democratic candidates who were expelled or given no confidence by their respective parties and, even so, became mayors. The best known were Valentim Loureiro in Gondomar and Isaltino Morais in Oeiras. Fátima Felgueiras, independent candidate in Felgueiras, suffered a surprised defeat by the Social Democratic candidate after winning the election in 2005 with more than 47% of the vote.

Turnout in these election was the lowest in local election, as only 59% of the electorate cast a ballot, although the number of ballots cast in the election was the highest ever in local elections.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

1 The PSD and the CDS–PP will also form coalitions in several municipalities with the Earth Party (MPT) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM).

National summary of votes and seats

Municipal Councils

 Summary of the 11 October 2009 Municipal Councils elections results
Parties Votes % ±pp swing Candidacies Councillors Mayors
# ± # ±
PS 2,087,83137.72Increase1.8921Increase29132Increase23
PSD 1,271,41022.97Decrease5.3666Decrease76117Decrease21
Social Democratic / People's Party 540,0539.76Increase1.2157Increase2119Increase1
CDU 537,3299.71Decrease1.2174Decrease2928Decrease4
Independents 222,4944.02Increase1.667Increase317Steady0
CDS–PP 170,7723.09Increase0.031Increase11Steady0
BE 164,3962.97Increase0.09Increase21Steady0
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 163,9662.96221
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 99,8111.80Increase0.117Increase21Steady0
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 69,6381.26Decrease0.19Decrease21Steady0
Workers' Communist Party 14,2420.26Decrease0.00Steady00Steady0
Earth Party 11,1960.20Increase0.22Increase20Steady0
New Democracy 6,8820.12Increase0.11Increase0.10Steady0
Hope for Portugal Movement 1,9530.0400
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,7090.03Steady0.02Steady00Steady0
People's Monarchist Party 1,4660.03Steady0.00Steady00Steady0
Merit and Society Movement 1,4370.0300
National Renovator Party 1,2040.02Decrease0.00Steady00Steady0
Portuguese Labour Party 7580.0100
People's Party / Earth Party 1650.0000
People's Party / PPM 1560.0000
Total valid 5,371,842 97.05 Increase1.3 2,078 Increase32 308 Steady0
Blank ballots 94,8621.71Decrease0.9
Invalid ballots 68,4001.24Decrease0.5
Total (turnout 59.03%) 5,535,104 100.00 Decrease1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

Municipal Assemblies

 Summary of the 11 October 2009 Municipal Assemblies elections results
Parties Votes % ±pp swing Candidacies Mandates
# ±
PS 2,031,783 36.70 Increase1.0 2,855 Increase61
PSD 1,226,358 22.15 Decrease4.8 2,124 Decrease292
CDU 586,118 10.59 Decrease1.1 651 Decrease71
Social Democratic / People's Party 518,198 9.61 Increase1.1 522 Increase115
BE 229,414 4.14 Increase0.2 139 Increase25
Independents 215,794 3.90 Increase1.8 224 Increase103
CDS–PP 195,823 3.54 Increase0.2 253 Increase63
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 162,092 2.93 65
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 98,349 1.78 Increase0.1 60 Decrease13
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 63,584 1.15 Decrease0.1 22 Decrease5
Workers' Communist Party 7,432 0.13 Decrease0.1 0 Decrease1
New Democracy 7,347 0.13 Increase0.1 5 Increase4
Hope for Portugal Movement 4,906 0.09 0
National Renovator Party 1,741 0.03 0
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,627 0.03 Steady0.0 6 Steady0
Merit and Society Movement 1,591 0.03 0
People's Monarchist Party 1,300 0.02 Steady0.0 5 Steady0
Portuguese Labour Party 828 0.01 0
People's Party / Earth Party 257 0.00 0
People's Party / PPM 205 0.00 1
Total valid 5,354,747 96.73 Increase1.3 6,946 Increase60
Blank ballots 110,8882.00Decrease0.9
Invalid ballots 70,0471.27Decrease0.4
Total (turnout 59.04%) 5,535,682 100.00 Decrease1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

Parish Assemblies

 Summary of the 11 October 2009 Parish Assemblies elections results
Parties Votes % ±pp swing Candidacies Mandates Presidents
# ± # ±
PS 2,003,533 36.27 Increase0.8 13,736 Increase253 1,577 Increase59
PSD 1,238,620 22.43 Decrease4.2 11,113 Decrease1,338 1,530 Decrease193
CDU 606,136 10.97 Decrease1.1 2,266 Decrease289 213 Decrease31
Social Democratic / People's Party 508,043 9.20 Increase1.6 2,911 Increase847 312 Increase93
Independents 338,003 6.12 Increase1.6 2,673 Increase473 332 Increase40
BE 163,423 2.96 Increase0.3 235 Increase6 4 Increase1
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 161,398 2.92 384 31
CDS–PP 128,443 2.33 Decrease0.4 693 Decrease129 53 Decrease12
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 96,936 1.76 Increase0.2 405 Steady0 36 Increase2
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 62,228 1.13 Decrease0.7 168 Decrease48 15 Decrease4
Earth Party 8,400 0.15 Increase0.1 47 Increase24 2 Decrease1
Workers' Communist Party 3,368 0.06 Decrease0.0 0 Steady0 0 Steady0
Merit and Society Movement 1,803 0.03 0 0
New Democracy 1,658 0.03 Decrease0.1 3 Decrease3 0 Steady0
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,532 0.03 Steady0.0 29 Decrease3 2 Steady0
People's Monarchist Party 716 0.01 Increase0.1 3 Increase3 0 Steady0
People's Party / Earth Party 542 0.01 3 0
Portuguese Labour Party 336 0.01 0 0
National Renovator Party 280 0.00 Steady0.0 0 Steady0 0 Steady0
People's Party / PPM 152 0.00 3 0
Total valid 5,325,550 96.41 Increase1.1 34,672 4,107
Blank ballots 116,2432.10Decrease0.7
Invalid ballots 81,5231.48Decrease0.4
Total (turnout 59.00%) 5,523,316 100.00 Decrease1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

See also

References

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