| Election Name: | 2007 Madeiran regional election |
| Country: | Madeira |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2004 Madeiran regional election |
| Previous Year: | 2004 |
| Next Election: | 2011 Madeiran regional election |
| Next Year: | 2011 |
| Seats For Election: | 47 seats to the Legislative Assembly of Madeira |
| Majority Seats: | 24 |
| Election Date: | 6 May 2007 |
| Turnout: | 60.7% 0.3 pp |
| Leader1: | Alberto João Jardim |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party (Portugal) |
| Last Election1: | 44 seats, 53.7% |
| Seats1: | 33 |
| Seat Change1: | 11 |
| Popular Vote1: | 90,377 |
| Percentage1: | 64.2% |
| Swing1: | 10.5 pp |
| Leader2: | Jacinto Serrão de Freitas |
| Party2: | Socialist Party (Portugal) |
| Last Election2: | 19 seats, 27.4% |
| Seats2: | 7 |
| Seat Change2: | 12 |
| Popular Vote2: | 21,692 |
| Percentage2: | 15.4% |
| Swing2: | 12.0 pp |
| Colour3: | FF0000 |
| Leader3: | Edgar Silva |
| Party3: | CDU |
| Last Election3: | 2 seats, 5.5% |
| Seats3: | 2 |
| Seat Change3: | 0 |
| Popular Vote3: | 7,650 |
| Percentage3: | 5.4% |
| Swing3: | 0.1 pp |
| Leader4: | José Manuel Rodrigues |
| Party4: | CDS – People's Party |
| Last Election4: | 2 seats, 7.0% |
| Seats4: | 2 |
| Seat Change4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 7,519 |
| Percentage4: | 5.3% |
| Swing4: | 1.7 pp |
| Image5: | BE |
| Leader5: | Paulo Martins |
| Party5: | Left Bloc (Portugal) |
| Last Election5: | 1 seat, 3.7% |
| Seats5: | 1 |
| Seat Change5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 4,186 |
| Percentage5: | 3.0% |
| Swing5: | 0.7 pp |
| Image6: | MPT |
| Leader6: | João Gonçalves |
| Party6: | MPT |
| Last Election6: | Did not contest |
| Seats6: | 1 |
| Seat Change6: | 1 |
| Popular Vote6: | 3,175 |
| Percentage6: | 2.3% |
| Swing6: | New party |
| Image7: | PND |
| Leader7: | Baltasar de Aguiar |
| Colour7: | 1F468B |
| Party7: | PND |
| Last Election7: | Did not contest |
| Seats7: | 1 |
| Seat Change7: | 1 |
| Popular Vote7: | 2,931 |
| Percentage7: | 2.1% |
| Swing7: | New party |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| President | |
| Posttitle: | President-designate |
| Before Election: | Alberto João Jardim |
| Before Party: | Social Democratic Party (Portugal) |
| After Election: | Alberto João Jardim |
| After Party: | Social Democratic Party (Portugal) |
A regional election was held in Madeira on 6 May 2007, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The election was a snap election, as it was original schedule to only happen in October 2008. The election was called after the President of the Regional Government, Alberto João Jardim, resigned after his government clashed with the Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates due to the new regional finance law approved by the Sócrates government.[1] Jardim defended that the new law was harmful for Madeira's interests. By this time, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) had been in power, nonstop, since 1976.
The election was a huge landslide for the PSD and Alberto João Jardim. He won one of the biggest landslides in Madeira electoral history, winning more than 64 percent of the votes and 70 percent of the members of the regional parliament.[2] The PSD won, once again, in all 11 municipalities of the region. The Socialists suffered a huge setback in these elections winning just 15 percent of the votes and 7 seats, although the number of total members was reduced to 47 due to a new electoral system.
The smaller parties, CDS, CDU and BE, also saw their shares decrease and CDU, led by the Portuguese Communist Party, was able to pull ahead of the People's Party (CDS-PP). The Left Bloc (BE) had, like CDU, minor losses and was able to hold on to their sole seat. But other smaller parties gained representation for the first time. The Earth Party (MPT) and the New Democracy Party (PND) gained, both, one seat and polled above 2 percent.
Turnout in these elections increased very slightly compared with 3 years ago, with 60.8 percent of voters casting a ballot.
Before this election, members of the regional parliament were elected in 11 constituencies, representing the 11 municipalities of Madeira, that were awarded a determined number of member to elect according with the number of registered voters in those constituencies. The method used to elect the members was the D'Hondt method. For the 2007 elections, the system changed and members of the regional parliament would now be elected by a single constituency, coinciding with the territory of the Region.[3] The method used, to elect members, would continue to be the D'Hondt method. The total number of members was also reduced from the 68, in the 2004 elections, to 47 in the 2007 elections.
The parties that partook in the election, and their leaders, were:[4]
| Date Released | Polling Firm | PSD | PS | CDS-PP | CDU | BE | Others | Lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 May 2007 | Universidade Católica[5] | 64.5 | 15.5 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 49.0 | ||
| 6 May 2007 | Eurosondagem | 69.0 | 13.0 | 5.5 | 4.1 | 2.2 | 56.0 | ||
| Exit polls | |||||||||
| 2 May 2007 | Intercampus | 61.5 | 19.5 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 5.0 | 2.6 | 42.0 | |
| 29 April 2007 | Universidade Católica | 66.0 | 16.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 50.0 | |
| 27 April 2007 | Eurosondagem | 58.0 | 24.5 | 4.7 | 5.3 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 33.5 | |
| 24 April 2007 | Eurosondagem | 59.3 | 23.8 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 35.5 | |
| 23 February 2007 | Eurosondagem | 59.1 | 25.0 | 5.9 | 4.8 | 3.4 | 1.8 | 34.1 | |
| 17 October 2004 | Election results | 53.7 44 seats | 27.4 19 seats | 7.0 2 seats | 5.5 2 seats | 3.7 1 seats | 2.7 | 26.3 | |
|-| colspan="11"||-! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±pp swing! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|MPs! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |MPs %/
votes %|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center|2004! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center|2007! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±|-| |90,377||64.24||10.5||44||33||11||70.21||5.5||1.09|-| |21,692||15.42||12.0||19||7||12||14.89||13.0||0.97|-| |7,650||5.44||0.1||2||2||0||4.26||1.3||0.78|-| |7,519||5.34||1.7||2||2||0||4.26||1.3||0.80|-| |4,186||2.98||0.7||1||1||0||2.13||0.7||0.71|-| |3,175||2.26||||||1||||2.13||||0.94|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#1F468B align="center" | |align=left|New Democracy|2,931||2.08||||||1||||2.13||||1.02|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|137,530|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|97.75|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.4|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|68|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|47|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|21|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.0|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|-|colspan=2|Blank ballots|1,148||0.82||0.2||colspan=6 rowspan=4||-|colspan=2|Invalid ballots|2,019||1.43||0.2|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|140,697|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"||-|colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||231,606||60.75||0.3|-| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições|}