2009 Portuguese local elections

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.

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
Turnout59.0% Decrease 1.9 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Manuela Ferreira Leite.jpg
José Socrates cropped from Dmitry Medvedev in Portugal 20 November 2010-2 (cropped).png
Jerónimo de Sousa 2007b (cropped).jpg
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 Decrease 1.1 pp Increase 1.8 pp Decrease 1.2 pp
Mayors 139 132 28
Mayors +/– Decrease 19 Increase 23 Decrease 4
Councillors 873 921 174
Councillors +/– Decrease 38 Increase 68 Decrease 29

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.

Parties

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Official logo of the election.

The main political forces involved in the election were:

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).

Opinion polling

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Voter turnout

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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]

Results

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Municipal Councils

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National summary of votes and seats

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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

Municipality map

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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

City control

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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]

Municipality Population Previous control New control
Almada 160,825 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU)
Amadora 175,872 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Aveiro 73,335 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Barcelos 122,096 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Socialist Party (PS)
Beja 35,762 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Socialist Party (PS)
Braga 169,192 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Bragança 34,750 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Cascais 170,683 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Castelo Branco 55,708 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Coimbra 148,443 PSD / CDS–PP / PPM PSD / CDS–PP / PPM
Évora 56,519 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Faro 58,051 Socialist Party (PS) PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT
Funchal 103,961 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Gondomar 159,096 Independent (IND) Independent (IND)
Guarda 43,822 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Guimarães 159,576 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Leiria 119,847 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Socialist Party (PS)
Lisbon[a] 564,657 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Loures 199,059 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Maia 120,111 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Matosinhos 167,026 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Odivelas 133,847 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Oeiras 162,128 Independent (IND) Independent (IND)
Ponta Delgada 65,854 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Portalegre 25,980 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Porto 263,131 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Santarém 63,563 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Santa Maria da Feira 135,964 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Seixal 150,271 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU)
Setúbal 113,934 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU)
Sintra 363,749 PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT
Viana do Castelo 88,631 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Vila Franca de Xira 122,908 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS)
Vila Nova de Famalicão 127,567 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Vila Nova de Gaia 288,749 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP
Vila Real 49,957 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Viseu 93,501 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Municipal Assemblies

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National summary of votes and seats

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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

Parish Assemblies

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National summary of votes and seats

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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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Autárquicas 2009 - Afluência". eleicoes.mai.gov.pt/autarquicas2009/index.html (in Portuguese). Ministry of Internal Administration. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  2. ^ "Autárquicas 2005 - Afluência". eleicoes.mai.gov.pt/Autarquicas2005/ (in Portuguese). Ministry of Internal Administration. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Recenseamentos Gerais da População)". www.ine.pt (in Portuguese). Statistics Portugal. Retrieved 17 July 2021.

Notes

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  1. ^ In 2005, the PSD was reelected but there was a by-election in 2007 that was won by the PS and, thus, the PS controlled Lisbon city at the time of the 2009 elections.
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