1985 Portuguese local elections

The Portuguese local elections of 1985 took place on 15 December. They were the fourth local elections in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power.

1985 Portuguese local elections

15 December 1985

All 305 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes
All 1,975 local government councils
Turnout63.0% 8.1 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Almeida Santos Álvaro Cunhal
Party PSD PS PCP
Alliance APU
Last election 88 mayors, 15%[1] 83 mayors, 31.2% 55 mayors, 20.9%
Popular vote 1,633,247 1,318,287 935,897
Percentage 34.2% 27.6% 19.6%
Swing 19.2 pp 3.6 pp 1.3 pp
Mayors 149 79 47
Mayors +/– 61 4 8
Councillors 819 574 303
Councillors +/– 380 45 13

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 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 4,000 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% of the voting, 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% of the voting. 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 1% of the voting in comparison with the election of 1982 and lost 8 mayors, gathering only 47 presidencies. However, despite losing only 1% of the voting 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% 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.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

Results

National summary of votes and seats

Most voted parties or coalitions in each Municipality.
Municipalities won by:
- PSD: 149
- PS: 79
- APU: 47
- CDS: 27
- PRD: 3
 Summary of the 15 December 1985 Municipal Councils elections results
Parties Votes % Candidacies Councillors Mayors
# ± # ±
Social Democratic 1,633,247 34.19 819 380 149 61
Socialist 1,318,287 27.60 574 45 79 4
United People Alliance 935,897 19.59 303 13 47 8
Democratic and Social Centre 466,965 9.78 222 37 27 0
Democratic Renewal 224,161 4.69 49 3
People's Democratic Union 28,701 0.60 3 0 0 0
People's Monarchist 23,968 0.50 3 2 0 1
Portuguese Workers' Communist 10,967 0.23 0 0 0 0
Christian Democratic 7,910 0.17 2 0 0 0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 2,324 0.05 0 0 0 0
Total valid 4,631,497 96.97 1,975 66 305 0
Blank ballots 73,7841.54
Invalid ballots 71,1261.49
Total 4,776,407 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 7,578,62263.02

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 15 December 1985 Municipal Assemblies elections results
Parties Votes % Candidacies Mandates
# ±
Social Democratic 1,391,500 29.59 2,509 361
Socialist 1,142,381 24.30 1,796 1,386
United People Alliance 953,935 20.29 1,056 707
Democratic and Social Centre 761,855 16.20 1,015 12
Democratic Renewal 245,830 5.22 273
People's Democratic Union 31,899 0.68 14 7
People's Monarchist 15,949 0.34 7 21
Portuguese Workers' Communist 6,396 0.14 0 0
Christian Democratic 4,002 0.09 2 0
Socialist League of the Workers 783 0.02 0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 254 0.00 0 0
Total valid 4,543,206 96.62 6,672 3,225
Blank ballots 88,9351.89
Invalid ballots 69,8541.48
Total 4,701,995 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 7,444,15063.16

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 15 December 1985 Parish Assemblies elections results
Parties Votes % Candidacies Mandates Presidents
# ± # ±
Social Democratic 1,584,427 32.85 13,118 3,619
Socialist 1,303,425 27.02 9,039 3,764
United People Alliance 993,767 20.60 3,676 1,321
Democratic and Social Centre 507,499 10.52 4,531 306
Democratic Renewal 164,345 3.41 726
Independents 67,601 1.40 797 241
People's Democratic Union 28,572 0.59 26 4
Portuguese Workers' Communist 4,153 0.09 0 0
People's Monarchist 2,585 0.05 24 75
Christian Democratic 1,021 0.02 4 4
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 792 0.02 0 0
Total valid 4,658,187 96.67 31,941 '
Blank ballots 84,7971.77
Invalid ballots 80,7661.67
Total 4,823,750 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 7,652,78663.52

Maps

Notes

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.

See also

References

  1. Cities where the PSD contested alone. Not with coalitions with CDS or PPM.
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