2009 Portuguese local elections

The Portuguese local elections of 2009 took place on 11 October. The elections 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.

2009 Portuguese local elections
11 October 2009
All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes
All 2,078 local government councils
Turnout59.0% 1.9 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Manuela Ferreira Leite José Sócrates Jerónimo de Sousa
Party PSD PS PCP
Alliance 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 1.1 pp 1.8 pp 1.2 pp
Mayors 139 132 28
Mayors +/– 19 23 4
Councillors 873 921 174
Councillors +/– 38 68 29
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The elections 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 councilors. 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
Most voted parties or coalitions in each Municipality. Municipalities won by:
■ - PSD: 117
■ - PS: 132
■ - CDU: 28
■ - BE: 1
■ - CDS–PP: 1
■ - PSD coalitions: 22
■ - Independents: 7
 Summary of the 11 October 2009 Municipal Councils elections results
Parties Votes % ±pp swing Candidacies Councillors Mayors
# ± # ±
Socialist 2,087,83137.721.89212913223
Social Democratic 1,271,41022.975.36667611721
Social Democratic / People's 540,0539.761.215721191
Democratic Unity Coalition 537,3299.711.217429284
Independents 222,4944.021.6673170
People's 170,7723.090.031110
Left Bloc 164,3962.970.09210
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 163,9662.96—22—1—
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 99,8111.800.117210
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 69,6381.260.19210
Portuguese Workers' Communist 14,2420.260.00000
Earth 11,1960.200.22200
New Democracy 6,8820.120.110.100
Hope for Portugal Movement 1,9530.04—0—0—
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,7090.030.02000
People's Monarchist 1,4660.030.00000
Merit and Society Movement 1,4370.03—0—0—
National Renovator 1,2040.020.00000
Labour 7580.01—0—0—
People's / Earth 1650.00—0—0—
People's / People's Monarchist 1560.00—0—0—
Total valid 5,371,842 97.05 1.3 — 2,078 32 308 0
Blank ballots 94,8621.710.9
Invalid ballots 68,4001.240.5
Total (turnout 59.03%) 5,535,104 100.00 1.9
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
# ±
Socialist 2,031,783 36.70 1.0 2,855 61
Social Democratic 1,226,358 22.15 4.8 2,124 292
Democratic Unity Coalition 586,118 10.59 1.1 651 71
Social Democratic / People's 518,198 9.61 1.1 522 115
Left Bloc 229,414 4.14 0.2 139 25
Independents 215,794 3.90 1.8 224 103
People's 195,823 3.54 0.2 253 63
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 162,092 2.93 — 65 —
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 98,349 1.78 0.1 60 13
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 63,584 1.15 0.1 22 5
Portuguese Workers' Communist 7,432 0.13 0.1 0 1
New Democracy 7,347 0.13 0.1 5 4
Hope for Portugal Movement 4,906 0.09 — 0 —
National Renovator 1,741 0.03 — 0 —
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,627 0.03 0.0 6 0
Merit and Society Movement 1,591 0.03 — 0 —
People's Monarchist 1,300 0.02 0.0 5 0
Labour 828 0.01 — 0 —
People's / Earth 257 0.00 — 0 —
People's / People's Monarchist 205 0.00 — 1 —
Total valid 5,354,747 96.73 1.3 — 6,946 60
Blank ballots 110,8882.000.9
Invalid ballots 70,0471.270.4
Total (turnout 59.04%) 5,535,682 100.00 1.9
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
# ± # ±
Socialist 2,003,533 36.27 0.8 13,736 253 1,577 59
Social Democratic 1,238,620 22.43 4.2 11,113 1,338 1,530 193
Democratic Unity Coalition 606,136 10.97 1.1 2,266 289 213 31
Social Democratic / People's 508,043 9.20 1.6 2,911 847 312 93
Independents 338,003 6.12 1.6 2,673 473 332 40
Left Bloc 163,423 2.96 0.3 235 6 4 1
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM 161,398 2.92 — 384 — 31 —
People's 128,443 2.33 0.4 693 129 53 12
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM 96,936 1.76 0.2 405 0 36 2
PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT 62,228 1.13 0.7 168 48 15 4
Earth 8,400 0.15 0.1 47 24 2 1
Portuguese Workers' Communist 3,368 0.06 0.0 0 0 0 0
Merit and Society Movement 1,803 0.03 — 0 — 0 —
New Democracy 1,658 0.03 0.1 3 3 0 0
PSD / CDS–PP / MPT 1,532 0.03 0.0 29 3 2 0
People's Monarchist 716 0.01 0.1 3 3 0 0
People's / Earth 542 0.01 — 3 — 0 —
Labour 336 0.01 — 0 — 0 —
National Renovator 280 0.00 0.0 0 0 0 0
People's / People's Monarchist 152 0.00 — 3 — 0 —
Total valid 5,325,550 96.41 1.1 — 34,672 — 4,107 —
Blank ballots 116,2432.100.7
Invalid ballots 81,5231.480.4
Total (turnout 59.00%) 5,523,316 100.00 1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais
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See also

References
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