Local elections were held in Portugal on 16 December 1979. They were the 2nd local elections in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power. The elections took place just two weeks after the 1979 legislative election.
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All 305 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 1,900 local government councils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 71.7%  7.0 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 305 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is automatically elected mayor, 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 Socialist Party finished on the top of the results table, however that was because the coalition between the two major right-wing parties, the Democratic and Social Center and the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Alliance, did not participated in all Municipalities and Parishes, being the parties which composed it, separated in many Municipalities
The left-wing United People Alliance dominated the election in the municipalities of the South of the country, gathering more than 60 percent of the votes.
Turnout in these elections increased compared with the 1976 election, as 71.7 percent of the electorate cast a ballot, the highest turnout recorded in a nationwide local election.
Parties
editThe main political forces involved in the election were:
- Democratic Alliance (AD) (only in some municipalities)
- Democratic and Social Center (CDS) (only in some municipalities)
- Socialist Party (PS)
- Social Democratic Party (PSD) (only in some municipalities)
- United People Alliance (APU)
Results
editMunicipal Councils
editNational summary of votes and seats
edit| Parties | Votes | % | ±pp swing | Candidacies | Councillors | Mayors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | ± | Total | ± | |||||||
| Socialist | 1,258,966 | 28.33 |  4.7
|
297 | 516 | 175
|
60 | 55
| ||
| Democratic Alliance | 1,044,642 | 23.51 | — | 138 | 426 | — | 73 | — | ||
| United People Alliance[A] | 885,899 | 19.94 | 2.6
|
295 | 316 | 48
|
50 | 13
| ||
| Social Democratic | 723,953 | 16.29 | 8.0
|
156 | 475 | 149
|
101 | 14
| ||
| Democratic and Social Centre | 334,258 | 7.52 | 9.1
|
102 | 156 | 161
|
20 | 16
| ||
| People's Democratic Union | 53,076 | 1.19 | — | 95 | 3 | — | 0 | — | ||
| Portuguese Workers' Communist | 19,508 | 0.44 | 0.2
|
63 | 0 |  0
|
0 | 0
| ||
| Christian Democratic | 6,631 | 0.15 | — | 9 | 2 | — | 0 | — | ||
| People's Monarchist | 6,219 | 0.14 | 0.1
|
3 | 6 | 3
|
1 | 0
| ||
| UEDS | 1,882 | 0.04 | — | 7 | 0 | — | 0 | — | ||
| Workers Party of Socialist Unity | 273 | 0.01 | — | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | — | ||
| Total valid | 4,271,897 | 97.56 | 1.8
|
— | 1,900 | 8
|
305 | 1
| ||
| Blank ballots | 44,693 | 1.01 | 1.1 |
|||||||
| Invalid ballots | 63,679 | 1.43 | 0.7
| |||||||
| Total | 4,380,269 | 100.00 | ||||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,105,651 | 71.74 | 7.1
| |||||||
| A In 1976, as Electoral Front United People. | ||||||||||
Municipality map
edit.png)
Municipalities won by:
■ - PS: 60
■ - AD: 73
■ - APU: 50
■ - PSD: 101
■ - CDS: 20
■ - PPM: 1
City control
editThe 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 1970 Census.[4]
Municipal Assemblies
editNational summary of votes and seats
edit| Parties | Votes | % | ±pp swing | Candidacies | Mandates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | ± | |||||||||
| Socialist | 1,245,306 | 27.86 | 5.5
|
2,686 | 988
| |||||
| Democratic Alliance | 1,056,656 | 23.64 | — | 2,122 | — | |||||
| United People Alliance[A] | 916,990 | 20.51 | 2.4
|
1,746 | 1,067
| |||||
| Social Democratic | 747,911 | 16.73 | 7.8
|
2,230 | 572
| |||||
| Democratic and Social Centre | 308,721 | 6.91 | 9.5
|
832 | 221
| |||||
| People's Democratic Union | 55,794 | 1.25 | — | 58 | — | |||||
| Portuguese Workers' Communist | 10,783 | 0.24 | 0.1
|
0 | 0
| |||||
| People's Monarchist | 5,578 | 0.12 | 0.0
|
26 | 24
| |||||
| UEDS | 596 | 0.01 | — | 3 | — | |||||
| Christian Democratic | 417 | 0.00 | 0.0
|
0 | 0
| |||||
| Total valid | 4,266,013 | 97.28 | 2.1
|
— | 9,703 | 4,568
| ||||
| Blank ballots | 59,564 | 1.33 | 1.2 |
|||||||
| Invalid ballots | 62,241 | 1.39 | 0.9
| |||||||
| Total | 4,387,818 | 100.00 | ||||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,105,647 | 71.86 | 7.3
| |||||||
| A In 1976, as Electoral Front United People. | ||||||||||
Parish Assemblies
editNational summary of votes and seats
edit| Parties | Votes | % | ±pp swing | Candidacies | Mandates | Presidents | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | ± | Total | ± | |||||||
| Socialist | 1,219,298 | 27.77 | 4.9
|
10,613 | 2,268
|
|||||
| Democratic Alliance | 1,000,702 | 22.79 | — | 9,785 | — | — | ||||
| United People Alliance[A] | 898,670 | 20.47 | 5.1
|
4,732 | 2,441
|
|||||
| Social Democratic | 736,954 | 16.78 | 7.6
|
9,447 | 371
|
|||||
| Democratic and Social Centre | 306,332 | 6.98 | 8.1
|
4,661 | 416
|
|||||
| Independents | 49,207 | 1.12 | 2.9
|
707 | 523
|
|||||
| People's Democratic Union | 41,414 | 0.94 | — | 55 | — | — | ||||
| Portuguese Workers' Communist | 6,010 | 0.14 | 0.2
|
3 | 1
|
|||||
| People's Monarchist | 5,006 | 0.12 | 0.1
|
78 | 66
|
|||||
| Christian Democratic | 2,594 | 0.06 | — | 26 | — | — | ||||
| Workers Party of Socialist Unity | 695 | 0.02 | — | 1 | — | — | ||||
| UEDS | 600 | 0.01 | — | 2 | — | — | ||||
| Total valid | 4,141,981 | 97.19 | 1.6
|
— | 40,110 | — | — | |||
| Blank ballots | 54,704 | 1.25 | 0.9 |
|||||||
| Invalid ballots | 68,502 | 1.56 | 0.7
| |||||||
| Total | 4,265,187 | 100.00 | ||||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,031,266 | 70.72 | 5.1
| |||||||
| A In 1976, as Electoral Front United People. | ||||||||||
Maps
edit-
The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Councils in each district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown) -
The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Assemblies in each district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
-
The first and the second most voted parties in Parish Assemblies in each district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Notes
edit- The source of the voting data is the Portuguese Electoral Commission Archived 2020-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
Further Notes:
- Democratic Alliance (AD) was composed by the Democratic Social Center (CDS), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM).
- Although the PSD, the CDS and the PPM were united in the Democratic Alliance, they appear in the scorecard because they ran separated in several municipalities.
- United People Alliance (APU) was composed by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE).
- The number of candidacies expresses the number of municipalities or parishes in which the party or coalition presented lists.
- The number of mandates expresses the number of municipal deputies in the Municipal Assembly election and the number of parish deputies in the Parish Assembly election.
- The turnout varies because one may choose not to vote for all the organs.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Sum of PSD, AD, CDS and PPM votes.
- ^ Sum of PSD, AD, CDS and PPM elected mayors.
- ^ Sum of PSD, AD, CDS and PPM elected councillors.
- ^ "Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Recenseamentos Gerais da População)". www.ine.pt (in Portuguese). Statistics Portugal. Retrieved 17 July 2021.