The nationally-governing Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) swept to victory in yesterday’s local elections, obtaining an impressive 38 per cent of the vote in the contest for 308 municipalities, far clear of all their rivals. The reward was an increase in the control of council Presidencies (Mayors) from 149 to 159, with absolute majorities in 142 chambers, up from 120. This was the best PS result at local level since the restoration of democracy in Portugal in 1974.

For the opposition Social Democrats (PSD), the result was considered a poor one, despite only a small loss of vote share to 16 per cent, and a moderate loss of both councillors and councils controlled. Even when adding in the scores of local ad hoc coalitions between the PSD and other parties, the opposition failed to match its national opinion poll scores. The future of PSD leader Pedro Passos Coelho is now widely considered to be in doubt.

The left-wing and green allies of PS Prime Minister Antonio Costa, the PCP and PEV, did not have such a good day, losing nearly a third of their Presidencies and a fifth of their seats in the chambers.

Local independents and citizens’ groups increased their presence, despite a static overall vote share. This was most notable in the country’s second city, Porto, where independent Rui Moreira retained his mayoral position with 44 per cent of the vote, despite a local opinion poll suggesting a close race with the PS. While the capital Lisbon will keep a PS Mayor, the party there is now narrowly without an overall majority.

The centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU-PP) had little to celebrate, whether standing alone or in alliance with the PSD. And there was no breakthrough for the two smaller national parties, the Left Bloc (BE) and the greens of PAN.

At 56 per cent, turnout was up by a couple of percentage points on 2013. The results summarised below are for council executive chambers: very similar percentages apply to Municipal Assemblies in the 308 major councils (with 6461 members elected), and to parish councils (3083 in total, electing 27,005 members).

 

PORTUGAL 1 October
Camara Municipal (Council Executives)
2013 results in brackets

Socialist Party (PS) 37.82% (36.26) or 1,956,703 votes
Social Democratic Party (PSD) 16.07% (16.70) or 831,551
Communist-Green coalition (PCP-PEV) 9.46% (11.06) or 489,189
Centre-right coalitions (PSD-CDS-PP) 8.78% (7.59) or 454,290
Citizens’ groups/independents (Grupo Cidadaos) 6.79% (6.89) or 351,327
Left Bloc (BE) 3.29% (2.42) or 170,027
Christian Democrats/People’s Party (CDS-PP) 2.60% (3.04) or 134,311
People-Animals-Nature (PAN) 1.08% (0.32%) or 55,900
Others 9.56% (8.90) or 494,997

‘Blank’ votes 2.63% or 135,805
‘Nul’ votes 1.93% or 99,716

Eligible voters 9,411,540
Votes cast 5,173,186
Turnout 54.97% (2013: 52.60%)

 

Council Presidencies (and absolute majorities)
with comparisons to 2013

PS 159 (142) previously 149 (120)
PSD 79 (74) was 86 (76)
PCP-PEV 24 (18) was 34 (29)
PSD-CDS-PP 16 (15) was 16 (15)
Grupo Cid. 17 (13) was 13 (8)
CDS-PP 6 (5) was 5 (5)
BE 0 (0) was 0 (0)
PAN 0 (0) was 0 (0)
Others 7 (7) was 5 (3)

Total councils 308 (274 absolute majorities)
2013: 308 councils with 256 absolute majorities

 

Number of Executive Councillors
2013 numbers in brackets

PS 952 (923)
PSD 493 (531)
PCP-PEV 171 (213)
PSD-CDS-PP 160 (154)
Grupo Cid. 130 (112)
CDS-PP 41 (47)
BE 12 (8)
PAN 0 (0)
Others 115 (98)

Total seats 2074
2013: 2086 seats

 

Source: Ministerio da Administracao Interna. Full results here.

 

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