2005 Portuguese local elections

← 2001 9 October 2005 2009 →
All 308 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 2,046 local government councils
Turnout	60.9% 0.8 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Luís Marques Mendes José Sócrates Jerónimo de Sousa Party PSD PS PCP Alliance CDU Last election 159 mayors, 41.2% 113 mayors, 37.1% 28 mayors, 10.6% Popular vote 2,150,710 1,933,041 589,384 Percentage 39.9% 35.9% 10.9% Swing 1.3 pp 1.2 pp 0.3 pp Mayors 158 109 32 Mayors +/– 1 4 4 Councillors 911 853 203 Councillors +/– 5 3 4

The Portuguese local election of 2005 took place on 9 October 2005. The election 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 4,000 parishes around the country.

The Socialist Party may be considered the major defeated party of this election due to a slight loss of mandates. The Socialists did, however, achieve a better percentage of the vote in relation to the election of 2001.

On the right, the Social Democratic Party stole some municipalities from the Socialists, some of them in coalition with the People's Party that was reduced to only one municipality in stand-alone candidacies, Ponte de Lima, continuing its decline in comparison, for example, with the 36 mayors achieved in 1976.

On the left, the Unitary Democratic Coalition, led by the Communist Party, regained some of its former influence, taking 4 municipalities and several parishes from the Socialists in the districts of Beja, Évora and Setúbal and Leiria achieving a total of 32 mayors, and winning, for the first time, the election in Peniche. The Left Bloc kept the presidency of its single municipality, Salvaterra de Magos.

The election was also remarkable for the several victories of independent candidates, most of them former Socialist, Social Democratic and People's Party candidates who were expelled or given no confidence, because of corruption accusations, by their respective parties and, even so, became mayors. The best known were Valentim Loureiro in Gondomar, Fátima Felgueiras in Felgueiras and Isaltino Morais in Oeiras.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election were:

• Left Bloc (BE)
• People's Party (CDS–PP)
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)
• Socialist Party (PS)
• Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Results

Municipal Councils

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 9 October 2005 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Councillors		Mayors
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	1,933,041	35.87	1.8	307	853	24	109	4
	Social Democratic	1,523,526	28.27	0.1	245	742	32	138	4
	Democratic Unity Coalition	589,384	10.94	0.3	301	203	4	32	4
	Social Democratic / People's	462,199	8.58	0.4	42	131	17	18	3
	People's	165,192	3.07	0.6	185	30	9	1	2
	Left Bloc	158,953	2.95	1.8	111	7	1	1	0
	Independents	133,380	2.47	0.9	27	45	14	7	4
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	91,455	1.70	0.4	12	20	10	1	0
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT	71,153	1.32	—	3	11	—	1	—
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	15,421	0.29	0.0	19	0	0	0	0
	Humanist	5,096	0.09	0.0	13	0	0	0	0
	New Democracy	2,045	0.04	—	4	0	—	0	—
	National Renovator	1,759	0.03	0.0	5	0	0	0	0
	PSD / CDS–PP / MPT	1,670	0.03	—	1	2	—	0	—
	Earth	1,582	0.03	0.2	4	0	4	0	1
	PSD / PPM	707	0.01	2.5	1	0	8	0	1
	PND / PPM	439	0.01	—	1	0	—	0	—
	National Solidarity	244	0.00	—	1	0	—	0	—
	People's / Social Democratic	109	0.00	0.2	1	0	6	0	0
	CDS–PP / PSD / PPM	11	0.00	—	1	0	—	0	—
Total valid		5,159,104	95.73	0.6	—	2,046	2	308	0
Blank ballots		139,012	2.58	0.4
Invalid ballots		90,919	1.69	0.2
Total		5,389,035	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,843,875	60.94	0.8

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 2001 Census.^[1]

Municipal Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 9 October 2005 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates
						Total	±
	Socialist	1,923,468	35.68	1.7	307	2,794	73
	Social Democratic	1,454,256	26.98	0.2	245	2,416	52
	Democratic Unity Coalition	628,881	11.67	0.6	301	722	13
	Social Democratic / People's	454,972	8.44	0.9	41	407	20
	Left Bloc	212,652	3.95	2.4	115	114	86
	People's	175,927	3.26	1.0	162	190	63
	Independents	115,999	2.15	1.0	25	121	28
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	90,670	1.68	0.5	13	73	33
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT	66,190	1.23	—	3	27	—
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	8,620	0.16	0.0	9	1	0
	People's / Social Democratic	2,768	0.05	0.0	2	6	13
	PSD / CDS–PP / MPT	1,641	0.03	—	1	6	—
	Earth	1,590	0.03	0.2	1	0	18
	New Democracy	1,590	0.03	—	2	1	—
	People's Monarchist	1,011	0.02	0.0	6	5	5
	PND / PPM	831	0.02	—	1	0	—
	PSD / PPM	760	0.01	2.4	1	2	21
	Humanist	200	0.00	0.0	2	0	0
	CDS–PP / PSD / PPM	8	0.00	—	1	0	—
Total valid		5,161,181	95.72	0.3	—	6,885	9
Blank ballots		138,424	2.57	0.1
Invalid ballots		92,140	1.71	0.2
Total		5,391,745	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,847,385	60.94	0.8

Parish Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 9 October 2005 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	Candidacies	Mandates		Presidents
						Total	±	Total	±
	Socialist	1,903,166	35.37	1.5	3,711	13,460	265	1,518	5
	Social Democratic	1,433,256	26.64	0.1	3,065	12,447	299	1,723	74
	Democratic Unity Coalition	648,622	12.05	0.9	2,239	2,576	110	244	12
	Social Democratic / People's	411,633	7.65	0.6	529	2,065	59	219	4
	Independents	245,659	4.57	0.2	568	2,201	206	292	19
	Left Bloc	146,898	2.73	1.6	448	229	183	3	3
	People's	144,575	2.69	0.9	1,043	826	144	65	14
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT	95,175	1.77	—	45	216	—	19	—
	PSD / CDS–PP / PPM	84,398	1.57	0.7	125	400	98	34	2
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	3,635	0.07	0.0	28	0	1	0	0
	New Democracy	3,184	0.06	—	16	7	—	0	—
	Earth	3,100	0.06	0.1	7	23	97	3	15
	PSD / CDS–PP / MPT	1,756	0.03	—	12	32	—	3	—
	People's / Social Democratic	1,448	0.03	0.1	2	10	57	2	6
	Humanist	824	0.02	0.0	10	0	0	0	0
	PSD / PPM	807	0.02	2.3	5	6	259	0	18
	National Solidarity	72	0.00	—	5	0	—	0	—
	National Renovator	38	0.00	—	1	0	—	0	—
	People's Monarchist	27	0.00	0.0	1	0	1	0	0
Total valid		5,130,086	95.31	0.7	—	34,498	—	4,125	—
Blank ballots		151,527	2.82	0.5
Invalid ballots		101,067	1.88	0.2
Total		5,382,680	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,832,693	60.94	0.9

End notes

• The source of the voting data is the Portuguese Electoral Commission Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine

Further Notes:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU) is composed of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), "The Greens" (PEV) and the Democratic Intervention (ID).
• The different coalitions between the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the People's Party (CDS–PP), the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) or the Earth Party (MPT) appear because each municipality has its own election.
• 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.