2001 Portuguese local elections

The Portuguese local elections of 2001 took place on 16 December. The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is elected mayor, 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 4,200 parishes around the country.

2001 Portuguese local elections

16 December 2001
All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,044 local government councils
Turnout	60.1% 0.0 pp
Leader José Manuel Barroso António Guterres Carlos Carvalhas Party PSD PS PCP Alliance CDU Last election 127 mayors, 35.8% 128 mayors, 41.3% 41 mayors, 12.0% Popular vote 2,167,587 1,948,520 557,481 Percentage 41.2% 37.1% 10.6% Swing 5.4 pp 4.2 pp 1.4 pp Mayors 159 113 28 Mayors +/– 32 15 13 Councillors 912 852 199 Councillors +/– 98 27 37

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) won the elections by a landslide, defying polls in many cities across the country in particular the three main cities, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra. The victory of the PSD in these local election was the first since 1985, the last time the PSD won more mayors than the Socialists, although in 1997, the PS and PSD basically tied in number of elected mayors. The PSD won 11 of the 20 district capitals mainly Lisbon, won by Pedro Santana Lopes, and Porto, won by Rui Rio, plus many suburban cities like Sintra, Cascais, Vila Nova de Famalicão and Penafiel swung also to the Social Democrats.

The Socialist Party (PS) was the biggest loser of these elections. After 6 years in power governing without an absolute majority and adding to this a bad economy, the PS's hopes of maintaining the largest number of mayors were slashed. The defeat was worse than expected because of loses in the main cities of Lisbon and Porto, where polls showed the PS with a solid lead. Because of the bad results of the party and a prospect of political instability, Prime Minister António Guterres resigned on election night stating that the country should not fall in "a political swamp".

The election was also very bad for Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) in which they achieved their worst result in local elections till that date. The Communist-Green alliance lost 13 mayoral races plus 37 councillors and lost big cities like Évora and Loures to the PS. The People's Party also had a poor showing losing 5 cities, although this time they celebrated more coalitions with the PSD. On the other hands, the election returns were quite good for other smaller parties: the Left Bloc (BE) won 1 city (Salvaterra de Magos) from CDU and the Earth Party won Celorico da Beira from the PS. Independent movements were also allowed to run in these elections for the first time and won 3 cities.

Turnout in these elections remained unchanged in comparison with the 1997 election, as 60.1% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• Left Bloc (BE)
• People's Party (CDS–PP) (only in some municipalities)¹, ²
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)²
• Socialist Party (PS)²
• Social Democratic Party (PSD) (only in some municipalities)¹

¹ The PSD and the CDS–PP formed coalitions in several municipalities. In some municipalities the PSD or CDS–PP also formed coalitions with PPM.
² The PS formed also some coalitions with the CDS–PP and a coalition with CDU in Lisbon.

Results

National summary of votes and seats

Most voted parties or coalitions in each Municipality. Municipalities won by:
■ - PSD: 142
■ - PS: 113
■ - CDU: 28
■ - BE: 1
■ - CDS–PP: 3
■ - PSD coalitions: 17
■ - MPT: 1
■ - Independents: 3

 Summary of the 16 December 2001 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						#	±	#	±
	Socialist	1,792,690	34.12	4.0	295	829	40	113	14
	Social Democratic	1,488,897	28.22	4.5	263	774	29	142	15
	Democratic Unity Coalition	557,481	10.61	1.4	300	199	37	28	13
	Social Democratic / People's	472,581	8.99	6.0	38	114	103	15	15
	People's	195,198	3.72	1.9	195	39	44	3	5
	Social Democratic / PPM	131,135	2.50	—	1	8	—	1	—
	Socialist / Democratic Unity Coalition	130,279	2.48	0.6	1	8	2	0	1
	Independents	84,010	1.60	—	22	31	—	3	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	67,094	1.28	—	2	10	—	1	—
	Left Bloc	61,789	1.18	—	70	6	—	1	—
	Socialist / People's	25,551	0.49	—	7	15	—	0	—
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	17,541	0.33	0.0	22	0	0	0	0
	Earth	12,568	0.24	0.2	19	4	2	1	1
	People's / Social Democratic	7,880	0.15	—	3	6	—	0	—
	People's Democratic Union	5,318	0.10	0.3	11	0	0	0	0
	People's / People's Monarchist	4,289	0.08	—	3	1	—	0	—
	Humanist	3,019	0.06	—	7	0	—	0	—
	People's / Socialist	2,010	0.04	—	1	2	—	0	—
	National Renovator	877	0.02	—	2	0	—	0	—
	People's Monarchist	294	0.01	0.1	1	0	5	0	1
Total valid		5,061,297	96.33	0.2	—	2,044	21	308	3
Blank ballots		114,834	2.19	0.0
Invalid ballots		78,049	1.49	0.1
Total		5,254,180	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,738,906	60.12	0.0
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 16 December 2001 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						#	±
	Socialist	1,788,089	34.03	3.8		2,721	166
	Social Democratic	1,430,532	27.23	3.2		2,468	111
	Democratic Unity Coalition	585,426	11.14	1.3		709	89
	Social Democratic / People's	486,936	9.27	6.2		427	392
	People's	226,774	4.32	3.1		253	184
	Socialist / Democratic Unity Coalition	129,852	2.47	0.6		24	6
	Social Democratic / PPM	124,457	2.37	—		23	—
	Left Bloc	80,520	1.53	—		28	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	64,430	1.23	—		40	—
	Independents	60,919	1.16	—		93	—
	Socialist / People's	26,174	0.50	—		40	—
	Earth	12,694	0.24	0.1		18	13
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	7,863	0.15	0.1		1	0
	People's / Social Democratic	6,943	0.13	—		19	—
	People's Democratic Union	5,800	0.11	0.4		2	0
	People's / People's Monarchist	4,425	0.08	—		3	—
	People's / Socialist	2,302	0.04	—		7	—
	National Renovator	779	0.01	—		0	—
	People's Monarchist	436	0.01	0.1		0	16
	Humanist	155	0.00	—		0	—
Total valid		5,045,506	96.02	0.2	—	6,876	69
Blank ballots		130,359	2.48	0.1
Invalid ballots		78,578	1.50	0.1
Total		5,254,443	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,738,906	60.13	0.0
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 16 December 2001 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						#	±	#	±
	Socialist	1,775,531	33.85	2.7	3,578	13,195	435	1,523
	Social Democratic	1,392,019	26.54	3.7	3,073	12,148	812	1,649
	Democratic Unity Coalition	586,844	11.19	1.2	2,139	2,466	265	232
	Social Democratic / People's	431,002	8.22	3.5	544	2,124	1,486	215
	Independents	232,861	4.44	1.6	696	2,407	813	311
	People's	189,838	3.62	1.8	1,090	970	870	79
	Socialist / Democratic Unity Coalition	132,918	2.53	0.7	53	309	99	35
	Social Democratic / PPM	121,259	2.31	—	53	265	—	18	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	60,295	1.15	—	82	302	—	32	—
	Left Bloc	57,361	1.09	—	286	46	—	6	—
	Socialist / People's	25,583	0.49	—	35	112	—	2	—
	Earth	8,626	0.16	0.1	56	120	81	18
	People's / Social Democratic	6,966	0.13	—	18	67	—	8	—
	People's Democratic Union	5,299	0.10	0.2	49	7	1	0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	4,961	0.09	0.0	27	1	1	0
	People's / People's Monarchist	4,714	0.09	—	36	4	—	0	—
	People's / Socialist	2,326	0.04	—	8	25	—	1	—
	Humanist	220	0.00	—	2	0	—	0	—
	People's Monarchist	98	0.00	0.1	1	1	79	0
Total valid		5,038,721	96.05	0.1	—	34,569	616	4,129
Blank ballots		120,665	2.30	0.1
Invalid ballots		86,409	1.65	0.2
Total (turnout 60.03%)		5,245,795	100.00	0.2
Registered voters/turnout		8,738,906	60.03	0.3
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Autárquicas 2001

See also

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

References

External links

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