Portuguese local election, 1985

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Portugal
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

The Portuguese local election of 1985 took place on December 15. This was the fourth local election in Portugal since the democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power.

The election 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 Renovator 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.

The main political forces involved in the election were:

1 National summary of votes and seats
2 References

[edit] National summary of votes and seats

[edit] Municipal Chambers

The first and the second most voted parties in each district

Portuguese local election, 1985 (December 15) - Municipal Chambers
Party	Votes	%	Candidacies	Councillors	Mayors
PSD	1,649,338	34.0%		822	149
PS	1,330,029	27.4%		571	61
APU	942,147	19.8%		305	47
CDS	471,591	10.2%		224	27
PRD	230,125	04.8%		51	3
UDP	28,701	00.6%		3	0
PPM	23,897	00.5%		3	0
PCTP/MRPP	11,275	00.2%		0	0
PDC	7,863	00.2%		2	0
POUS	2,311	00.1%		0	0
Blank Ballots	76,593	01.5%	-	-	-
Invalid Ballots	78,693	01.5%	-	-	-
Total	4,852,563	-	-	1,981	305

Registered Voters: 7,593,968
Turnout: 63.90%

[edit] Municipal Assemblies

The first and the second most voted parties in each district

Portuguese local election, 1985 (December 15) - Municipal Assemblies
Party	Votes	%	Candidacies	Mandates
PSD	1,438,521	29.6%		2,540
PS	1,170,482	24.1%		1,817
APU	968,090	20.0%		1,062
CDS	782,021	16.1%		1,018
PRD	260,908	05.4%		270
UDP	33,447	00.7%		14
PPM	15,927	00.3%		7
PCTP/MRPP	6,494	00.1%		0
PDC	4,026	00.1%		2
LST	784	00.0%		0
POUS	250	00.0%		0
Blank Ballots	94,046	01.9%	-	-
Invalid Ballots	77,561	01.6%	-	-
Total	4,852,557	-		6,730

Registered Voters: 7,593,968
Turnout: 63.90%

[edit] Parish Assemblies

The first and the second most voted parties in each district

Portuguese local election, 1985 (December 15) - Parish Assemblies
Party	Votes	%	Candidacies	Mandates	Presidents
PSD	1,584,427	32.9%		13,118
PS	1,303,425	27.0%		9,039
APU	993,767	20.6%		3,676
CDS	507,499	10.5%		4,531
PRD	164,345	03.4%		726
Independents	67,601	01.4%		797
UDP	28,572	00.6%		26
PCTP/MRPP	4,153	00.1%		0
PPM	2,585	00.1%		24
PDC	1,021	00.0%		4
POUS	792	00.0%		0
Blank Ballots	84,797	01.8%	-	-	-
Invalid Ballots	80,766	01.7%	-	-	-
Total	4,823,750	-	-	31,941

Registered Voters: 7,593,968
Turnout: 63.52%

[edit] End notes

The source of the voting data is the STAPE

Further Notes:

APU was composed by the PCP and the 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.