| Election Name: | 2016 Azorean regional election |
| Country: | Azores |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2012 Azorean regional election |
| Previous Year: | 2012 |
| Election Date: | 16 October 2016[1] |
| Next Election: | 2020 Azorean regional election |
| Next Year: | 2020 |
| Seats For Election: | 57 seats to the Legislative Assembly of Azores |
| Majority Seats: | 29 |
| Opinion Polls: |
|
| Turnout: | 40.8% 7.0 pp |
| Leader1: | Vasco Cordeiro |
| Party1: | Socialist Party (Portugal) |
| Leader Since1: | 2012 |
| Leaders Seat1: | São Miguel[2] |
| Last Election1: | 31 seats, 49.0% |
| Seats1: | 30 |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Popular Vote1: | 43,274 |
| Percentage1: | 46.4% |
| Swing1: | 2.6 pp |
| Leader2: | Duarte Freitas |
| Party2: | Social Democratic Party (Portugal) |
| Leader Since2: | 2013 |
| Leaders Seat2: | São Miguel |
| Last Election2: | 20 seats, 33.0% |
| Seats2: | 19 |
| Seat Change2: | 1 |
| Popular Vote2: | 28,793 |
| Percentage2: | 30.9% |
| Swing2: | 2.1 pp |
| Image3: | CDS |
| Leader3: | Artur Lima |
| Party3: | CDS – People's Party |
| Leader Since3: | 2008 |
| Leaders Seat3: | Terceira |
| Last Election3: | 3 seats, 5.6% |
| Seats3: | 4 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 6,674 |
| Percentage3: | 7.2% |
| Swing3: | 1.6 pp |
| Image4: | BE |
| Leader4: | Zuraida Soares |
| Party4: | Left Bloc (Portugal) |
| Leaders Seat4: | São Miguel |
| Last Election4: | 1 seat, 2.3% |
| Seats4: | 2 |
| Seat Change4: | 1 |
| Popular Vote4: | 3,414 |
| Percentage4: | 3.7% |
| Swing4: | 1.4 pp |
| Image6: | PPM |
| Colour6: | 005FAD |
| Leader6: | Paulo Estêvão |
| Party6: | PPM |
| Leader Since6: | 2008 |
| Leaders Seat6: | Corvo |
| Last Election6: | 1 seat, 0.9% |
| Seats6: | 1 |
| Seat Change6: | 0 |
| Popular Vote6: | 866 |
| Percentage6: | 0.9% |
| Swing6: | 0.8 pp |
| Image5: | CDU |
| Colour5: | FF0000 |
| Leader5: | João Corvelo |
| Party5: | PCP |
| Alliance5: | CDU |
| Leader Since5: | 2016 |
| Leaders Seat5: | Flores |
| Last Election5: | 1 seats, 1.9% |
| Seats5: | 1 |
| Seat Change5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 2,437 |
| Percentage5: | 2.6% |
| Swing5: | 0.7 pp |
| Map Size: | 400px |
| President | |
| Posttitle: | President-designate |
| Before Election: | Vasco Cordeiro |
| Before Party: | Socialist Party (Portugal) |
| After Election: | Vasco Cordeiro |
| After Party: | Socialist Party (Portugal) |
The 2016 Azorean regional election (Portuguese: Eleições regionais dos Açores de 2016) was on October 16 of the same year. In this election, the incumbent president of the regional government, led by the Socialist Vasco Cordeiro, was seeking a second term.
In this election, the PS maintained their absolute majority but lost one seat and lost 2.6 percent of the vote compared to 2012. The Social Democrats also lost one seat although their vote share fall was lower than the Socialists. The big winner was the People's Party which gain 7 percent of the vote and gained one seat compared to 2012. The Left Bloc also won one more seat compared to last time while the CDU maintained their only seat but at the same time, gained in share of the vote and was the most voted party in the island of Flores. The PPM also maintained their seat in the island of Corvo.
Turnout in this election was the lowest ever, as only 40.84 percent of the electorate cast a ballot.
Following the defeat of the PSD in the 2012 regional election, then party leader Berta Cabral resigned and a leadership ballot was called for 18 December 2012. Only one candidate was on the ballot: Duarte Freitas. Freitas was easily elected leader with almost 93 percent of the votes:[3]
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Duarte Freitas| align=right | 1,401| align=right | 92.6|-| colspan=2 align=left | Blank/Invalid ballots| align=right | 112| align=right | 7.4|-|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout| align=right | 1,513| align=right | –|-| colspan="4" align=left|Source: [4] |}
The Azores regional parliament elects 57 members through a proportional system in which the 9 islands elect a number of MPs proportional to the number of registered voters. MPs are allocated by using the D'Hondt method. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency.
| Constituency | Total MPs | Registered voters | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corvo | 2 | 334 | |
| Faial | 4 | 13,019 | |
| Flores | 3 | 3,187 | |
| Graciosa | 3 | 4,411 | |
| Pico | 4 | 13,496 | |
| Santa Maria | 3 | 5,499 | |
| São Jorge | 3 | 8 648 | |
| São Miguel | 20 | 127,206 | |
| Terceira | 10 | 52,409 | |
| Compensation | 5 | ||
| Total | 57 | 228,259 |
The parties that up to date of election were represented in the Assembly and their leaders, are:
| Party | Leader | MPs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socialist Party (PS) | Vasco Cordeiro | 31 | |
| Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD) | Duarte Freitas | 20 | |
| People's Party (CDS–PP) | Artur Lima | 3 | |
| Unitary Democratic Coalition (PCP–PEV) | Aníbal Pires | 1 | |
| Left Bloc (BE) | Zuraida Soares | 1 | |
| People's Monarchist Party (PPM) | Paulo Estêvâo | 1 | |
Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded but both are displayed in bold. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. Poll results use the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication.
| Polling firm/Link | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Lead | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regional election | 16.10.16 | 40.8% | 46.4 | 30.9 | 7.2 | 3.7 | 2.6 | 9.2 | 15.5 | ||
| UCP-CESOP[5] | 16.10.16 | ? | ? | 52.5 | 29.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 7.5 | 23.5 | |
| Norma Açores | 20.09.16–28.09.16 | ? | 65.4% | 66.9 | 20.7 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 6.3 | 46.2 | |
| Legislative election | 04.10.15 | 41.2% | 40.4 | 36.1 | 3.9 | 7.8 | 2.5 | 9.3 | 4.3 | ||
| Norma Açores | 15.04.15–21.04.15 | 503 | ? | 33.2 | 27.9 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 6.1 | 5.3 | |
| EP election | 25.05.14 | 19.7% | 41.3 | align:center;" colspan="2" | 29.6 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 21.5 | 11.7 | ||
| Local elections | 29.09.13 | 54.0% | 46.9 | 41.9 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 5.3 | 5.0 | ||
| Regional election | 14.10.12 | 47.9% | 49.0 | 33.0 | 5.6 | 2.3 | 1.9 | 8.2 | 16.0 | ||
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.
| Turnout | Time | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | 16:00 | 19:00 | ||||||||
| 2012 | 2016 | ± | 2012 | 2016 | ± | 2012 | 2016 | ± | ||
| Total | 10.34% | 7.47% | 2.96 pp | 34.37% | 29.29% | 5.08 pp | 47.86% | 40.85% | 7.01 pp | |
| Sources[6] | ||||||||||
|-| 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;"|2012! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"|2016! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±|-| |43,274||46.43||2.6||31||30||1||52.63||1.8||1.13|-| |28,793||30.90||2.1||20||19||1||33.33||1.8||1.08|-| |6,674||7.16||1.6||3||4||1||7.02||1.8||0.98|-| |3,414||3.66||1.4||1||2||1||3.51||1.8||0.96|-| |2,437||2.61||0.7||1||1||0||1.75||0.0||0.67|-| |1,342||1.44||0.8||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0|-| |866||0.93||0.8||1||1||0||1.75||0.0||1.88|-| |451||0.48||||||0||||0.00||||0.0|-| |343||0.37||0.4||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0|-| |299||0.32||0.0||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0|-| style="width:10px; background:#00CD8C; text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:left;" |FREE/Time to move Forward |227||0.24||||||0||||0.00||||0.0|-| |83||0.09||||||0||||0.00||||0.0|-| |67||0.07||||||0||||0.00||||0.0|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|88,270|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|94.69|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.8|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|57|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|57|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0|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|2,697||2.90||0.3||colspan=6 rowspan=4||-|colspan=2|Invalid ballots|2,227||2.40||1.1|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|93,194|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"||-|colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||228,162||40.85||7.0|-| colspan=11 align=left|Portuguese Communist Party (1 MPs) and "The Greens" (0 MPs) ran in coalition.|-| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições|}
|- class="unsortable"!rowspan=2|Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!rowspan=2|Total
S|- class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;"!colspan=2 | PS!colspan=2 | PSD!colspan=2 | CDS-PP!colspan=2 | BE!colspan=2 | CDU!colspan=2 | PPM|-| style="text-align:left;" | Corvo| style="background:; color:white;"|36.7| 1| 26.2| -|colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"|| 0.4| -| 1.6| -| 32.0| 1| 2|-| style="text-align:left;" | Faial| 32.6| 2| style="background:; color:white;"|41.2| 2| 6.5| -| 6.4| -| 4.6| -| 1.5| -| 4|-| style="text-align:left;" | Flores| 23.7| 1| 21.0| 1| 17.0| -| 1.3| -| style="background:red; color:white;"|32.5| 1|colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"|| 3|-| style="text-align:left;" | Graciosa| style="background:; color:white;"|54.6| 2| 36.7| 1| 1.7| -| 1.2| -| 0.5| -| 0.5| -| 3|-| style="text-align:left;" | Pico| style="background:; color:white;"|39.5| 2| 37.8| 2| 14.1| -| 1.1| -| 1.5| -| 0.4| -| 4|-| style="text-align:left;" | Santa Maria| style="background:; color:white;"|50.3| 2| 29.1| 1| 1.8| -| 4.4| -| 8.3| -| 0.6| -| 3|-| style="text-align:left;" | São Jorge| style="background:; color:white;"|39.5| 1| 21.4| 1| 26.3| 1| 2.8| -| 3.0| -| 0.7| -| 3|-| style="text-align:left;" | São Miguel| style="background:; color:white;"|49.2| 12| 30.6| 7| 3.2| -| 4.2| 1| 1.5| -| 1.2| -| 20|-| style="text-align:left;" | Terceira| style="background:; color:white;"|49.0| 6| 28.8| 3| 10.1| 1| 3.1| -| 1.5| -| 0.3| -| 10|-| style="text-align:left;" | Compensation| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| 1| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| 1| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| 2| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| 1| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| -| style="color:inherit;background:#AAAAAA"|| -| 5|- class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9"| style="text-align:left;" | Total| style="background:; color:white;"|46.4| 30| 30.9| 19| 7.2| 4| 3.7| 2| 2.6| 1| 0.9| 1| 57|-| colspan=14 style="text-align:left;" | Source: Azores Government|}