1985 Portuguese local elections

← 1982 15 December 1985 1989 →
All 305 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 1,975 local government councils
Turnout	63.0% 8.1 pp
First party Second party   PS Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva António Macedo Party PSD PS Last election 88 mayors, 15.0%[1] 83 mayors, 31.2% Popular vote 1,633,247 1,318,287 Percentage 34.2% 27.6% Swing 19.2 pp 3.6 pp Mayors 149 79 Mayors +/– 61 4 Councillors 819 574 Councillors +/– 380 45   Third party Fourth party   CDS Leader Álvaro Cunhal Lucas Pires Party PCP CDS Alliance APU Last election 55 mayors, 20.9% 27 mayors, 7.4%[2] Popular vote 935,897 466,965 Percentage 19.6% 9.8% Swing 1.3 pp 2.4 pp Mayors 47 27 Mayors +/– 8 0 Councillors 303 222 Councillors +/– 13 37

Local elections were held in Portugal on 15 December 1985. They were the fourth local elections in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power. The elections took place just nine weeks after the 1985 legislative election and just one month before the 1986 Presidential elections.

The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 305 Portuguese municipalities that existed at the time, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is automatically elected mayor, 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. This election was the first to grant a 4-years term, instead of the former 3 years. The number of members of the Municipal Assemblies and Parish Assemblies was greatly reduced in comparison with the former election.

For the first time, the Social Democratic Party achieved the majority of the voting by itself, since the coalition with the Democratic and Social Center, the Democratic Alliance, that achieved good results in 1979 and 1982 had been disbanded. Despite finishing second and losing almost 4 points in share, the Socialist Party lost only 4 of the former 83 mayors plus the presidency achieved in coalition with the Leftwing Union for the Socialist Democracy.

The Democratic and Social Center, this time participating alone in every election, after the end of the Democratic Alliance, continued its electoral decline, gathering only 10 percent of the votes. Despite keeping the same number of mayors achieved in 1982, in the municipalities where it ran alone, 27, the party lost 49 presidencies achieved in coalition with the Social Democrats.

The Portuguese Communist Party and the Portuguese Democratic Movement, united in the United People Alliance, lost one percentage point in comparison with the election of 1982 and lost 8 mayors, gathering only 47 presidencies. However, despite only a small drop in share of the vote, in the elections to Municipal Assemblies, the coalition lost almost 700 assembly members, decreasing its representation to 1062 members due to the overall reduction of mandates.

The newly founded Democratic Renewal Party, achieved almost 5 percent of the voting and the presidency of 3 municipalities. In the elections to Municipal Assemblies it gathered almost 6% of the voting and 270 Assembly members, being the great surprise of the election.

Turnout in these elections fell more than eight points compared with 1982, with 63 percent of voters casting a ballot. It was also the last local election under a 3-year term.

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• United People Alliance (APU)
• Democratic and Social Center (CDS)
• Democratic Renewal Party (PRD)
• Socialist Party (PS)
• Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Summary of the 15 December 1985 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						Total	±	Total	±
	Social Democratic	1,633,247	34.19	19.2		819	380	149	61
	Socialist	1,318,287	27.60	3.6		574	45	79	4
	United People Alliance	935,897	19.59	1.3		303	13	47	8
	Democratic and Social Centre	466,965	9.78	2.3		222	37	27	0
	Democratic Renewal	224,161	4.69	—		49	—	3	—
	People's Democratic Union	28,701	0.60	0.0		3	0	0	0
	People's Monarchist	23,968	0.50	0.3		3	2	0	1
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	10,967	0.23	2.1		0	0	0	0
	Christian Democratic	7,910	0.17	0.2		2	0	0	0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	2,324	0.05	0.0		0	0	0	0
Total valid		4,631,497	96.97	0.6	—	1,975	66	305	0
Blank ballots		73,784	1.54	0.3
Invalid ballots		71,126	1.49	0.3
Total		4,776,407	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,578,622	63.02	8.0

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 1981 Census.^[3]

Summary of the 15 December 1985 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						Total	±
	Social Democratic	1,391,500	29.59	15.5		2,509	361
	Socialist	1,142,381	24.30	6.9		1,796	1,386
	United People Alliance	953,935	20.29	0.8		1,056	707
	Democratic and Social Centre	761,855	16.20	8.7		1,015	12
	Democratic Renewal	245,830	5.22	—		273	—
	People's Democratic Union	31,899	0.68	0.0		14	7
	People's Monarchist	15,949	0.34	0.1		7	21
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	6,396	0.14	0.0		0	0
	Christian Democratic	4,002	0.09	0.1		2	0
	Socialist League of the Workers	783	0.02	—		0	—
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	254	0.00	0.1		0	0
Total valid		4,543,206	96.62	0.7	—	6,672	3,225
Blank ballots		88,935	1.89	0.4
Invalid ballots		69,854	1.48	0.3
Total		4,701,995	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,444,150	63.16	8.1

Summary of the 15 December 1985 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						Total	±	Total	±
	Social Democratic	1,584,427	32.85	17.4		13,118	3,619
	Socialist	1,303,425	27.02	4.0		9,039	3,764
	United People Alliance	993,767	20.60	1.2		3,676	1,321
	Democratic and Social Centre	507,499	10.52	2.8		4,531	306
	Democratic Renewal	164,345	3.41	—		726	—		—
	Independents	67,601	1.40	0.1		797	241
	People's Democratic Union	28,572	0.59	0.1		26	4
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	4,153	0.09	0.0		0	0
	People's Monarchist	2,585	0.05	0.1		24	75
	Christian Democratic	1,021	0.02	0.0		4	4
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	792	0.02	0.0		0	0
Total valid		4,658,187	96.57	0.3	—	31,941	—		—
Blank ballots		84,797	1.77	0.0
Invalid ballots		80,766	1.67	0.2
Total		4,823,750	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,652,786	63.52	6.1

• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Councils in each district.
• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Assemblies in each district.
• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Parish Assemblies in each district.

• The source of the voting data is the Portuguese Electoral Commission Archived 2020-02-05 at the Wayback Machine

Further Notes:

• United People Alliance (APU) was composed by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE).
• The number of candidacies expresses the number of municipalities or parishes in which the party or coalition presented lists.
• The number of mandates expresses the number of municipal deputies in the Municipal Assembly election and the number of parish deputies in the Parish Assembly election.
• The turnout varies because one may choose not to vote for all the organs.

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

• Portuguese Electoral Commission