2009 Portuguese local elections

2009 Portuguese local elections

← 2005 11 October 2009 2013 →
All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,078 local government councils
Opinion polls
Turnout	59.0% 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

Local elections were held in Portugal on 11 October 2009. The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is automatically elected president, similar to first-past-the-post (FPTP), 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 elections took place just two weeks after the 2009 legislative election.

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 clear margin, 44 to 39 percent.

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 percent 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 percent of the vote.

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

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• Left Bloc (BE)
• People's Party (CDS–PP) (only in some municipalities)¹
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)
• Socialist Party (PS)
• Social Democratic Party (PSD) (only in some municipalities)¹

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

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.

Turnout	Time
	12:00			16:00			19:00
	2005	2009	±	2005	2009	±	2005	2009	±
Total	21.35%	21.23%	0.12 pp	48.00%	45.30%	2.70 pp	60.94%	59.03%	1.91 pp
Sources[1][2]

Summary of the 11 October 2009 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	2,087,831	37.72	1.8		921	29	132	23
	Social Democratic	1,271,410	22.97	5.3		666	76	117	21
	Social Democratic / People's	540,053	9.76	1.2		157	21	19	1
	Democratic Unity Coalition	537,329	9.71	1.2		174	29	28	4
	Independents	222,494	4.02	1.6		67	31	7	0
	People's	170,772	3.09	0.0		31	1	1	0
	Left Bloc	164,396	2.97	0.0		9	2	1	0
	PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM	163,966	2.96	—		22	—	1	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	99,811	1.80	0.1		17	2	1	0
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT	69,638	1.26	0.1		9	2	1	0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	14,242	0.26	0.0		0	0	0	0
	Earth	11,196	0.20	0.2		2	2	0	0
	New Democracy	6,882	0.12	0.1		1	0.1	0	0
	Hope for Portugal Movement	1,953	0.04	—		0	—	0	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / MPT	1,709	0.03	0.0		2	0	0	0
	People's Monarchist	1,466	0.03	0.0		0	0	0	0
	Merit and Society Movement	1,437	0.03	—		0	—	0	—
	National Renovator	1,204	0.02	0.0		0	0	0	0
	Labour	758	0.01	—		0	—	0	—
	People's / Earth	165	0.00	—		0	—	0	—
	People's / People's Monarchist	156	0.00	—		0	—	0	—
Total valid		5,371,842	97.05	1.3	—	2,078	32	308	0
Blank ballots		94,862	1.71	0.9
Invalid ballots		68,400	1.24	0.5
Total		5,535,104	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		9,376,707	59.03	1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2014-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

The following table lists party control in all district capitals, highlighted in bold, as well as in municipalities above 100,000 inhabitants. Population estimates from the 2001 Census.^[3]

Summary of the 11 October 2009 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						Total	±
	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		110,888	2.00	0.9
Invalid ballots		70,047	1.27	0.4
Total		5,535,682	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		9,376,438	59.04	1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

Summary of the 11 October 2009 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						Total	±	Total	±
	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		116,243	2.10	0.7
Invalid ballots		81,523	1.48	0.4
Total		5,523,316	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		9,360,875	59.00	1.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal

• Official site Autárquicas 2009
• Official results site, Portuguese Justice Ministry
• Portuguese Electoral Commission