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 MinisterPedro Santana Lopes by a clear margin, 44 to 39 percent.
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, due to corruption accusations, and were still re-elected as mayors. The best known were Valentim Loureiro in Gondomar and Isaltino Morais in Oeiras. On the other hand, 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
Official logo of the election.
The main political forces involved in the election were:
Most voted party or coalition per Municipality according to opinion polls. ■ - PSD ■ - PS ■ - PSD/CDS–PP ■ - CDS–PP ■ - Independents ■ - CDU ■ - No polls
Voter turnout
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.
Most voted parties or coalitions in each Municipality. Municipalities won by: ■ - PSD: 117 ■ - PS: 132 ■ - CDU: 28 ■ - BE: 1 ■ - CDS–PP: 1 ■ - PSD coalitions: 22 ■ - Independents: 7
City control
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 2001 Census.[3]
^ In 2005, the PSD was reelected but there was a by-election in 2007 that was won by the PS and, thus, the PS controlled Lisbon city at the time of the 2009 elections.
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