1993 Portuguese local elections

← 1989 12 December 1993 1997 →
All 305 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,015 local government councils
Turnout	63.4% 2.5 pp
First party Second party   Leader António Guterres Aníbal Cavaco Silva Party PS PSD Last election 120 mayors, 36.8% 114 mayors, 35.4% Popular vote 2,175,954[1] 1,824,519 Percentage 40.2% 33.7% Swing 3.4 pp 1.7 pp Mayors 127[2] 116 Mayors +/– 7 2 Councillors 822[3] 806 Councillors +/– 70 13   Third party Fourth party   CDS Leader Carlos Carvalhas Manuel Monteiro Party PCP CDS Alliance CDU Last election 50 mayors, 12.9% 20 mayors, 9.1% Popular vote 689,923 454,047 Percentage 12.8% 8.4% Swing 0.1 pp 0.7 pp Mayors 49 13 Mayors +/– 1 7 Councillors 246 135 Councillors +/– 7 44

The Portuguese local elections of 1993 took place on 12 December. The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 305 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.

The Socialist Party (PS) maintained and increased their status as the largest local party. The party won 7 more cities compared with 1989 and, for the first time ever, polled above 40% of the votes.^[4] The PS hold on the control of big cities like Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, and were also able to win two big cities in the Lisbon area from the PSD, Cascais and Sintra.

The Social Democrats (PSD), although winning 2 more cities compared with last time, saw the gap between them and the PS widen, but, at the same, were able to hold onto their ground. The party suffered some losses, like they did in 1989, in the big urban centers but were able to win some cities from the PS like Pombal and Ponta Delgada. The elections happened as Cavaco Silva's government celebrated 8 years in power, and, at the same time Portugal was exiting the early 1990s recession which may have hurt the PSD electoral chances.

The Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) was able to hold on to their 1989 scores losing just one city and 7 councillors. The coalition between the Communists and the Greens were able to hold on to their bastions of Beja, Évora and Almada. The share of the vote for the CDU was also unchanged compared with 1989.

The People's Party (CDS) was the big loser of the elections. The party lost 7 cities, most of them for the PSD and PS, achieving their worst results till that date as they only won 13 cities out of 305. The party lost many of their bastions like Mirandela or Paredes to the PS or the PSD. The party also achieved their worst share of vote till that time, 8.4%.

Turnout in these elections increased compared with the 1989 election, as 63.4% of the electorate cast a ballot, the best turnout showing since 1982.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• People's Party (CDS)¹,
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)¹
• Socialist Party (PS)¹
• Social Democratic Party (PSD)

¹ The PS formed a coalitions with CDS, CDU and UDP in several municipalities.

Results

Municipal Councils

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1993 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	1,953,279	36.10	3.7		796	68	126	10
	Social Democratic	1,824,519	33.72	2.3		806	26	116	3
	Democratic Unity Coalition	689,923	12.75	0.1		246	7	49	1
	People's	454,047	8.39	0.7		135	44	13	7
	PS / CDU / UDP / PSR	200,816	3.71	0.0		11	2	1	0
	National Solidarity	28,716	0.53	—		3	—	0	—
	Earth	23,225	0.43	—		2	—	0	—
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	16,090	0.30	0.2		0	0	0	0
	Socialist / People's	11,435	0.21	0.2		7	8	0	3
	PS / CDU / UDP / PDA	10,234	0.19	—		4	—	0	—
	People's Democratic Union	8,161	0.15	0.2		0	4	0	1
	Democratic Renewal	1,456	0.03	0.8		0	4	0	0
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	1,387	0.03	0.2		1	0	0	0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	287	0.01	0.0		0	0	0	0
	People's Monarchist	269	0.00	0.1		0	1	0	0
	Christian Democratic	216	0.00	0.1		0	1	0	0
	PS / CDU	190	0.00	—		4	—	0	—
Total valid		5,223,673	96.54	0.0	—	2,015	13	305	0
Blank ballots		103,686	1.92	0.1
Invalid ballots		83,251	1.54	0.1
Total		5,410,610	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,529,737	63.43	2.5
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2017-12-06 at the Wayback Machine

Municipality map

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 1991 Census.^[5]

Municipal Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1993 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						Total	±
	Socialist	1,930,816	35.70	2.5		2,629	200
	Social Democratic	1,829,087	33.82	1.3		2,671	98
	Democratic Unity Coalition	704,980	13.04	0.8		803	46
	People's	445,065	8.23	1.1		556	156
	PS / CDU / UDP / PSR	194,501	3.60	0.2		32	9
	National Solidarity	23,260	0.43	—		16	—
	Earth	22,653	0.42	—		11	—
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	12,063	0.22	0.0		1	1
	Socialist / People's	11,905	0.22	0.5		24	17
	People's Democratic Union	11,009	0.20	0.2		2	12
	PS / CDU / UDP / PDA	9,958	0.18	—		11	—
	Revolutionary Socialist	9,733	0.18	—		0	—
	People's Monarchist	3,494	0.06	0.1		0	2
	Democratic Renewal	1,476	0.03	0.9		2	24
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	1,340	0.02	0.2		4	2
	PS / CDU	96	0.00	—		7	—
Total valid		5,211,436	96.36	0.1	—	6,769	16
Blank ballots		111,834	2.07	0.0
Invalid ballots		85,042	1.57	0.1
Total		5,408,312	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,530,297	63.40	3.6
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2017-12-06 at the Wayback Machine

Parish Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1993 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	1,860,188	34.53	2.3		12,312	1,124
	Social Democratic	1,810,841	33.62	0.7		13,679	442
	Democratic Unity Coalition	714,001	13.26	0.8		2,747	177
	People's	418,998	7.78	0.6		2,719	725
	PS / CDU / UDP / PSR	199,275	3.70	0.2		447	55
	Independents	123,351	2.29	0.4		1,234	225
	National Solidarity	21,462	0.40	—		55	—		—
	Earth	12,490	0.23	—		38	—		—
	Socialist / People's	11,913	0.22	0.5		124	57
	PS / CDU / UDP / PDA	10,593	0.20	—		80	—		—
	People's Democratic Union	7,639	0.14	0.4		2	28
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	3,820	0.07	0.0		1	1
	Democratic Renewal	1,525	0.03	0.6		10	48
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	1,163	0.02	0.2		8	5
	People's Monarchist	306	0.01	0.0		2	7
	Left Revolutionary Front	77	0.00	—		0	—		—
Total valid		5,197,642	96.49	0.1	—	33,458	458
Blank ballots		99,518	1.85	0.0
Invalid ballots		89,490	1.66	0.1
Total		5,386,650	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,530,297	63.15	7.9
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2019-10-06 at the Wayback Machine