2009 Portuguese local elections explained

Election Name:	2009 Portuguese local elections
Country:	Portugal
Type:	parliamentary
Previous Election:	2005 Portuguese local elections
Previous Year:	2005
Next Election:	2013 Portuguese local elections
Next Year:	2013
Seats For Election:	All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,078 local government councils
Election Date:	11 October 2009
Turnout:	59.0% 1.9 pp
Opinion Polls:	Opinion polling for the 2009 Portuguese local elections
1Blank:	Mayors
2Blank:	Mayors +/–
3Blank:	Councillors
4Blank:	Councillors +/–
Leader1:	Manuela Ferreira Leite
Party1:	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
Last Election1:	158 mayors, 39.9%
Popular Vote1:	2,146,587
Percentage1:	38.8%
Swing1:	1.1 pp
1Data1:	139
2Data1:	19
3Data1:	873
4Data1:	38
Party2:	Socialist Party (Portugal)
Last Election2:	109 mayors, 35.9%
Popular Vote2:	2,087,831
Percentage2:	37.7%
Swing2:	1.8 pp
1Data2:	132
2Data2:	23
3Data2:	921
4Data2:	68
Colour3:	FF0000
Party3:	PCP
Alliance3:	CDU
Last Election3:	32 mayors, 10.9%
Popular Vote3:	537,329
Percentage3:	9.7%
Swing3:	1.2 pp
1Data3:	28
2Data3:	4
3Data3:	174
4Data3:	29

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.

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

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• Left Bloc (BE)
• People's Party (CDS–PP) (only in some municipalities)¹
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)
• Socialist Party (PS)
• Social Democratic Party (PSD) (only in some municipalities)¹

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

See main article: Opinion polling for the 2009 Portuguese local elections.

Voter turnout

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

Municipal Councils

National summary of votes and seats

|-! 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! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Candidacies! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Councillors! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Mayors|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±|-| |2,087,831||37.72||1.8||||921||29||132||23|-| |1,271,410||22.97||5.3||||666||76||117||21|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|Social Democratic / People's|540,053||9.76||1.2||||157||21||19||1|-| |537,329||9.71||1.2||||174||29||28||4|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" ||align=left|Independents|222,494||4.02||1.6||||67||31||7||0|-| |170,772||3.09||0.0||||31||1||1||0|-| |164,396||2.97||0.0||||9||2||1||0|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM|163,966||2.96||—||||22||—||1||—|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM|99,811||1.80||0.1||||17||2||1||0|- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT|69,638||1.26||0.1||||9||2||1||0|-| |14,242||0.26||0.0||||0||0||0||0|-| |11,196||0.20||0.2||||2||2||0||0|-| |6,882||0.12||0.1||||1||0.1||0||0|-| |1,953||0.04||—||||0||—||0||—|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" ||align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT|1,709||0.03||0.0||||2||0||0||0|-| |1,466||0.03||0.0||||0||0||0||0|-| |1,437||0.03||—||||0||—||0||—|-| |1,204||0.02||0.0||||0||0||0||0|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#CC0033 align="center" | |align=left|Labour|758||0.01||—||||0||—||0||—|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / Earth|165||0.00||—||||0||—||0||—|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / People's Monarchist|156||0.00||—||||0||—||0||—|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,371,842|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|97.05|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.3|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|2,078|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|32|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|308|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0|-|colspan=2|Blank ballots|94,862||1.71||0.9||colspan=6 rowspan=4||-|colspan=2|Invalid ballots|68,400||1.24||0.5|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,535,104|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"||-|colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||9,376,707||59.03||1.9|-| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais|}

City control

The following table lists party control in all district capitals, 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	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

National summary of votes and seats

|-! 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! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Candidacies! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Mandates|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±|- | |align=right|2,031,783|align=right|36.70|align=right|1.0|align=right||align=right|2,855|align=right|61|-| |align=right|1,226,358|align=right|22.15|align=right|4.8|align=right||align=right|2,124|align=right|292|- | |align=right|586,118 |align=right|10.59|align=right|1.1|align=right||align=right|651|align=right|71|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|Social Democratic / People's|align=right|518,198 |align=right|9.61|align=right|1.1|align=right||align=right|522|align=right|115|-| |align=right|229,414|align=right|4.14|align=right|0.2|align=right||align=right|139|align=right|25|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" ||align=left|Independents|align=right| 215,794 |align=right| 3.90|align=right| 1.8|align=right| |align=right| 224|align=right|103|-| |align=right|195,823|align=right|3.54|align=right|0.2|align=right||align=right|253|align=right|63|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM|align=right|162,092 |align=right|2.93|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|65 |align=right|—|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM|align=right| 98,349 |align=right| 1.78|align=right| 0.1|align=right| |align=right| 60|align=right|13|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT|align=right| 63,584 |align=right|1.15|align=right|0.1|align=right||align=right|22 |align=right|5|-| |align=right|7,432 |align=right|0.13|align=right|0.1|align=right| |align=right|0|align=right|1|-| |align=right| 7,347|align=right| 0.13|align=right| 0.1|align=right| |align=right| 5 |align=right| 4|-| |align=right| 4,906 |align=right| 0.09|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|0 |align=right|—|-| |align=right| 1,741 |align=right| 0.03|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|0|align=right|—|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" ||align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT|align=right| 1,627|align=right| 0.03|align=right| 0.0|align=right| |align=right| 6 |align=right| 0|-| |align=right| 1,591 |align=right| 0.03|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|0|align=right|—|-| |align=right| 1,300 |align=right| 0.02|align=right| 0.0|align=right| |align=right| 5|align=right| 0|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#CC0033 align="center" | |align=left|Labour|align=right| 828 |align=right| 0.01|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|0|align=right|—|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / Earth|align=right| 257 |align=right| 0.00|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|0|align=right|—|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / People's Monarchist|align=right| 205|align=right| 0.00|align=right|—|align=right||align=right|1|align=right|—|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,354,747|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|96.73|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.3|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|6,946|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|60|-|colspan=2|Blank ballots|110,888||2.00||0.9||colspan=6 rowspan=4||-|colspan=2|Invalid ballots|70,047||1.27||0.4|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,535,682|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"||-|colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||9,376,438||59.04||1.9|-| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais|}

Parish Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

|-! 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! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Candidacies! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Mandates! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Presidents|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±|-| |align=right| 2,003,533|align=right| 36.27|align=right| 0.8|align=right| |align=right| 13,736|align=right| 253|align=right| 1,577|align=right| 59|-| |align=right| 1,238,620|align=right| 22.43|align=right| 4.2|align=right| |align=right| 11,113|align=right|1,338|align=right| 1,530|align=right| 193|- | |align=right| 606,136 |align=right| 10.97|align=right| 1.1|align=right| |align=right| 2,266|align=right| 289|align=right| 213|align=right| 31|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|Social Democratic / People's|align=right| 508,043 |align=right| 9.20|align=right| 1.6|align=right| |align=right| 2,911|align=right| 847|align=right| 312|align=right| 93|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" ||align=left|Independents|align=right| 338,003 |align=right| 6.12|align=right| 1.6|align=right| |align=right| 2,673|align=right| 473|align=right| 332|align=right| 40|-| |align=right| 163,423|align=right| 2.96|align=right| 0.3|align=right| |align=right| 235|align=right| 6|align=right| 4|align=right| 1|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT / PPM|align=right|161,398 |align=right|2.92|align=right| —|align=right| |align=right| 384|align=right| —|align=right| 31|align=right| —|-| |align=right| 128,443|align=right| 2.33|align=right| 0.4|align=right| |align=right| 693 |align=right| 129|align=right| 53|align=right| 12|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM|align=right| 96,936|align=right| 1.76|align=right| 0.2|align=right| |align=right| 405|align=right| 0|align=right| 36|align=right| 2|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT|align=right| 62,228 |align=right| 1.13|align=right| 0.7|align=right| |align=right| 168|align=right| 48|align=right| 15|align=right| 4|-| |align=right|8,400|align=right|0.15|align=right|0.1|align=right||align=right|47|align=right|24|align=right|2|align=right|1|-| |align=right| 3,368 |align=right| 0.06|align=right| 0.0|align=right| |align=right| 0|align=right| 0|align=right| 0|align=right|0|-| |align=right| 1,803 |align=right| 0.03|align=right| —|align=right| |align=right| 0|align=right| —|align=right| 0|align=right| —|-| |align=right| 1,658 |align=right|0.03|align=right|0.1|align=right||align=right|3 |align=right|3|align=right|0|align=right|0|-|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" ||align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT|align=right| 1,532 |align=right| 0.03|align=right| 0.0|align=right| |align=right| 29 |align=right| 3|align=right| 2|align=right| 0|-| |align=right| 716 |align=right| 0.01|align=right| 0.1|align=right| |align=right| 3 |align=right| 3|align=right| 0|align=right| 0|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / Earth|align=right| 542|align=right| 0.01|align=right| —|align=right| |align=right| 3|align=right| —|align=right| 0|align=right| —|-|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#CC0033 align="center" | |align=left|Labour|align=right| 336|align=right| 0.01|align=right| —|align=right| |align=right| 0|align=right| —|align=right| 0|align=right| —|-| |align=right| 280|align=right| 0.00|align=right| 0.0|align=right| |align=right| 0|align=right| 0|align=right| 0|align=right| 0|-|style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" ||align=left|People's / People's Monarchist|align=right| 152|align=right| 0.00|align=right| —|align=right| |align=right| 3|align=right| —|align=right| 0|align=right| —|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,325,550|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|96.41|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.1|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|34,672|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,107|width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—|-|colspan=2|Blank ballots|116,243||2.10||0.7||colspan=6 rowspan=4||-|colspan=2|Invalid ballots|81,523||1.48||0.4|-|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,523,316|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"||-|colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||9,360,875||59.00||1.9|-| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições, Autárquicas 2009 Resultados Oficiais|}

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal

External links

• Official site Autárquicas 2009
• Official results site, Portuguese Justice Ministry
• Portuguese Electoral Commission

Notes and References

1. Web site: Autárquicas 2009 - Afluência. pt . eleicoes.mai.gov.pt/autarquicas2009/index.html. . 9 June 2023.
2. Web site: Autárquicas 2005 - Afluência. pt . eleicoes.mai.gov.pt/Autarquicas2005/. . 9 June 2023.
3. Web site: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Recenseamentos Gerais da População). www.ine.pt. . pt . 17 July 2021.