1997 Portuguese local elections

← 1993 14 December 1997 2001 →
All 305 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,021 local government councils
Turnout	60.1% 3.3 pp
First party Second party   Leader António Guterres Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Party PS PSD Last election 127 mayors, 40.2% 116 mayors, 33.7% Popular vote 2,206,315[1] 1,886,242[2] Percentage 41.3% 35.2% Swing 1.1 pp 1.5 pp Mayors 128[3] 127[4] Mayors +/– 1 11 Councillors 879[5] 810[6] Councillors +/– 57 4   Third party Fourth party   CDS Leader Carlos Carvalhas Manuel Monteiro Party PCP CDS Alliance CDU Last election 49 mayors, 12.8% 13 mayors, 8.4% Popular vote 643,956 302,763[7] Percentage 12.0% 6.3% Swing 0.8 pp 2.1 pp Mayors 41 8 Mayors +/– 8 5 Councillors 236 87[8] Councillors +/– 10 48

The Portuguese local elections of 1997 took place on 14 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 as the largest local political force, although only just, winning 128 cities, one more compared to 1993, and increasing their vote share to above 41%. In reality, PS and PSD basically tied in this elections, but the Socialists were able to hold on to big cities like Lisbon, Porto, Sintra and Coimbra.^[9] On the other hand, the PS lost some cities to the PSD, particularly Vila Nova de Gaia and Figueira da Foz, the latter won by Pedro Santana Lopes, future Lisbon mayor and Prime Minister.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) made big gains, winning 11 cities and basically catching up with the Socialists. They also increased their share of vote to 35%. The PSD gained many cities from the PS, such as Bragança, Covilhã, Silves, Tavira and Alcobaça. Although the PSD didn't performed very strongly in the big urban centers, they performed extremely well in many medium and small cities across the country, but that same bad performance in the big urban centers, such as Lisbon and Porto, created criticisms to the leadership of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.^[10]

The election was quite bad for Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), as they continued their fall in local politics. The Communist/Green coalition lost 8 cities and decreased their vote share to 12%. The CDU lost many of their bastions to the PS, such as Cuba, Amadora, Vila Franca de Xira and Sesimbra. They also saw a decrease in number of councillors, although here the fall was soft, as they lost just 10 councillors compared to 1993.

The People's Party (PP) also continued its decline in local politics. The party only won 8 cities, a fall of 5 cities, and dropped its share of the vote to the lowest level till that time, 5.7%. They lost big cities like Aveiro to the PS and Vila Verde to the PSD. One surprise in the elections was the victory of the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) in Penalva do Castelo, Viseu district, over the People's Party.

Turnout in these elections dropped in comparison with the 1993 election, as 60.1% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

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

¹ The PSD and the CDS–PP formed coalitions in some municipalities.
² The PS formed a coalition with CDU and UDP in Lisbon.

Results

Municipal Councils

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 14 December 1997 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	2,041,307	38.07	2.0		869	73	127	1
	Social Democratic	1,761,383	32.85	0.9		803	3	127	11
	Democratic Unity Coalition	643,956	12.01	0.8		236	10	41	8
	People's	302,763	5.65	2.8		83	52	8	5
	PS / CDU / UDP	165,008	3.08	0.8		10	7	1	0
	Social Democratic / People's	124,859	2.33	—		7	—	0	—
	People's / Social Democratic	35,495	0.66	—		4	—	0	—
	People's Democratic Union	21,079	0.39	0.2		0	0	0	0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	18,674	0.35	0.1		0	0	0	0
	PSR / Politics XXI	9,175	0.17	—		0	—	0	—
	Revolutionary Socialist	9,126	0.17	—		0	—	0	—
	PPM	7,129	0.13	0.1		5	5	1	1
	Politics XXI	6,995	0.13	—		1	—	0	—
	Christian Democratic	4,361	0.08	0.1		1	1	0	0
	National Solidarity	2,301	0.04	0.5		0	3	0	0
	Earth	1,884	0.04	0.4		2	0	0	0
	Democratic Renewal	1,483	0.03	0.0		0	0	0	0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	567	0.01	0.0		0	0	0	0
	Left Revolutionary Front	120	0.00	—		0	—	0	—
Total valid		5,157,665	96.18	0.4	—	2,021	6	305	0
Blank ballots		117,360	2.19	0.3
Invalid ballots		87,584	1.63	0.1
Total		5,362,609	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,922,182	60.12	3.3
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2017-11-25 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.^[11]

Municipal Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 14 December 1997 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						Total	±
	Socialist	2,030,025	37.85	2.2		2,887	258
	Social Democratic	1,633,778	30.46	3.4		2,579	92
	Democratic Unity Coalition	668,896	12.47	0.6		798	5
	People's	395,209	7.37	0.9		437	119
	PS / CDU / UDP	163,411	3.05	0.7		30	6
	Social Democratic / People's	124,472	2.32	—		22	—
	People's / Social Democratic	42,321	0.79	—		13	—
	People's Democratic Union	25,552	0.48	0.3		2	0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	12,309	0.23	0.0		1	0
	PSR / Politics XXI	11,150	0.21	—		1	—
	Revolutionary Socialist	8,850	0.16	0.0		1	1
	Politics XXI	6,483	0.12	—		8	—
	PPM	6,008	0.11	0.1		16	16
	Christian Democratic	4,254	0.08	—		5	—
	National Solidarity	3,940	0.07	0.4		0	16
	Earth	1 844	0.03	0.4		5	6
	Democratic Renewal	1,341	0.03	0.0		2	0.
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	576	0.01	—		0	—
Total valid		5,140,419	95.83	0.5	—	6,807	38
Blank ballots		135,738	2.53	0.4
Invalid ballots		87,800	1.64	0.0
Total		5,363,957	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,922,182	60.12	3.3
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2017-12-06 at the Wayback Machine

Parish Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 14 December 1997 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	1,952,468	36.56	2.0		13,626	1,314
	Social Democratic	1,615,100	30.24	3.4		12,960	719
	Democratic Unity Coalition	661,254	12.38	0.9		2,731	16
	People's	287,724	5.39	2.4		1,840	339
	Social Democratic / People's	206,839	3.87	—		561	—		—
	PS / CDU / UDP	169,893	3.18	0.7		408	119
	Independents	152,055	2.85	0.6		1,594	360
	People's / Social Democratic	43,267	0.81	—		77	—		—
	People's Democratic Union	16,116	0.30	0.2		6	4
	PPM	5,501	0.10	0.1		80	78
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	4,575	0.09	0.0		2	1
	Earth	3,162	0.06	0.2		39	1
	Christian Democratic	2 598	0.05	—		8	—		—
	National Solidarity	2,025	0.04	0.4		6	10
	Democratic Renewal	1 549	0.03	0.0		9	7
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	395	0.01	—		3	—		—
	Portuguese Party of Regions	394	0.01	—		3	—		—
	Revolutionary Socialist	34	0.00	—		0	—		—
Total valid		5,124,949	96.05	0.6	—	33,953	495
Blank ballots		119,778	2.24	0.4
Invalid ballots		96,014	1.80	0.1
Total		5,340,741	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,922,182	59.86	3.3
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2019-10-01 at the Wayback Machine