2016 Azorean regional election
Election in Portugal
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The 2016 Azorean regional election (Portuguese: Eleições regionais dos Açores de 2016) was on October 16 of the same year. In this election, the incumbent president of the regional government, led by the Socialist Vasco Cordeiro, was seeking a second term.
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16 October 2016[1]
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57 seats to the Legislative Assembly of Azores[2] 29 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 40.8%  7.0 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Map showing island constituencies won by political parties | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In this election, the PS maintained their absolute majority but lost one seat and lost 2.6 percent of the vote compared to 2012. The Social Democrats also lost one seat although their vote share fall was lower than the Socialists. The big winner was the People's Party which gain 7 percent of the vote and gained one seat compared to 2012. The Left Bloc also won one more seat compared to last time while the CDU maintained their only seat but at the same time, gained in share of the vote and was the most voted party in the island of Flores. The PPM also maintained their seat in the island of Corvo.
Turnout in this election was the lowest ever, as only 40.84 percent of the electorate cast a ballot.
Background
Leadership changes and challenges
Social Democratic Party
Following the defeat of the PSD in the 2012 regional election, then party leader Berta Cabral resigned and a leadership ballot was called for 18 December 2012. Only one candidate was on the ballot: Duarte Freitas. Freitas was easily elected leader with almost 93 percent of the votes:[4]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duarte Freitas | 1,401 | 92.6 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 112 | 7.4 | |
| Turnout | 1,513 | – | |
| Source: [5] | |||
Electoral system
The Azores regional parliament elects 57 members through a proportional system in which the 9 islands elect a number of MPs proportional to the number of registered voters. MPs are allocated by using the D'Hondt method. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency.
| Constituency | Total MPs |
Registered voters[6] |
|---|---|---|
| Corvo | 2 | 334 |
| Faial | 4 | 13,019 |
| Flores | 3 | 3,187 |
| Graciosa | 3 | 4,411 |
| Pico | 4 | 13,496 |
| Santa Maria | 3 | 5,499 |
| São Jorge | 3 | 8 648 |
| São Miguel | 20 | 127,206 |
| Terceira | 10 | 52,409 |
| Compensation | 5 | |
| Total | 57 | 228,259 |
Current parties in parliament
The parties that up to date of election were represented in the Assembly and their leaders, are:
| Party | Leader | MPs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socialist Party (PS) | Vasco Cordeiro | 31 | |
| Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD) | Duarte Freitas | 20 | |
| People's Party (CDS–PP) | Artur Lima | 3 | |
| Unitary Democratic Coalition (PCP–PEV) | Aníbal Pires | 1 | |
| Left Bloc (BE) | Zuraida Soares | 1 | |
| People's Monarchist Party (PPM) | Paulo Estêvâo | 1 | |
Opinion Polling
Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded but both are displayed in bold. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. Poll results use the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication.
Exit poll
| Polling firm/Link | Fieldwork date | Sample size |
TO |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
O | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 regional elections | 16 Oct 2016 | N/a | 40.8 | 46.4 30 |
30.9 19 |
7.2 4 |
3.7 2 |
2.6 1 |
9.2 1 |
15.5 |
| UCP-CESOP | 16 Oct 2016 | 6,905 | 38–43 | 50–55 31/35 |
27–31 17/21 |
5–7 2/3 |
2–4 0/1 |
1–3 0/1 |
1–4 0/2 |
23–24 |
| Norma Açores | 20–28 Sep 2016 | 900 | 65.4 | 66.9 36/41 |
20.7 12/17 |
3.2 2/4 |
1.7 0/1 |
1.2 0/1 |
6.3 0/1 |
46.2 |
| 2015 legislative election | 4 Oct 2015 | N/a | 41.2 | 40.4 | 36.1 | 3.9 | 7.8 | 2.5 | 9.3 | 4.3 |
| Norma Açores | 15–21 Apr 2015 | 503 | ? | 33.2 | 27.9 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 6.1 | 5.3 |
| 2014 EP elections | 25 May 2014 | N/a | 19.7 | 41.3 | 29.6 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 21.5 | 11.7 | |
| 2013 local elections | 29 Sep 2013 | N/a | 54.0 | 46.9 | 41.9 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 5.3 | 5.0 |
| 2012 regional elections | 14 Oct 2012 | N/a | 47.9 | 49.0 31 |
33.0 20 |
5.6 3 |
2.3 1 |
1.9 1 |
8.2 1 |
16.0 |
Voter turnout
Results
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| Parties | Votes | % | ±pp swing | MPs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2016 | ± | % | ± | |||||
| Socialist | 43,274 | 46.43 | 2.6 | 31 | 30 | 1 | 52.63 | 1.8 | |
| Social Democratic | 28,793 | 30.90 | 2.1 | 20 | 19 | 1 | 33.33 | 1.8 | |
| People's | 6,674 | 7.16 |  1.6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7.02 | 1.8 | |
| Left Bloc | 3,414 | 3.66 | 1.4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.51 | 1.8 | |
| Democratic Unity Coalition[A] | 2,437 | 2.61 | 0.7 | 1 | 1 |  0 | 1.75 | 0.0 | |
| People–Animals–Nature | 1,342 | 1.44 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | |
| People's Monarchist | 866 | 0.93 | 0.8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.75 | 0.0 | |
| United Party of Retirees and Pensioners | 451 | 0.48 | N/a | N/a | 0 | N/a | 0.00 | N/a | |
| Earth | 343 | 0.37 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | |
| Portuguese Workers' Communist | 299 | 0.32 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | |
| FREE/Time to move Forward | 227 | 0.24 | N/a | N/a | 0 | N/a | 0.00 | N/a | |
| Democratic Republican | 83 | 0.09 | N/a | N/a | 0 | N/a | 0.00 | N/a | |
| Socialist Alternative Movement | 67 | 0.07 | N/a | N/a | 0 | N/a | 0.00 | N/a | |
| Total valid | 88,270 | 94.69 | 0.8 |
57 | 57 | 0 |
100.00 | 0.0 | |
| Blank ballots | 2,697 | 2.90 | 0.3 | ||||||
| Invalid ballots | 2,227 | 2.40 | 1.1 | ||||||
| Total | 93,194 | 100.00 | |||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 228,162 | 40.85 | 7.0 | ||||||
| A Portuguese Communist Party (1 MPs) and "The Greens" (0 MPs) ran in coalition. | |||||||||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | |||||||||
Distribution by constituency
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS | PSD | CDS-PP | BE | CDU | PPM | ||||||||
| Corvo | 36.7 | 1 | 26.2 | - | 0.4 | - | 1.6 | - | 32.0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Faial | 32.6 | 2 | 41.2 | 2 | 6.5 | - | 6.4 | - | 4.6 | - | 1.5 | - | 4 |
| Flores | 23.7 | 1 | 21.0 | 1 | 17.0 | - | 1.3 | - | 32.5 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Graciosa | 54.6 | 2 | 36.7 | 1 | 1.7 | - | 1.2 | - | 0.5 | - | 0.5 | - | 3 |
| Pico | 39.5 | 2 | 37.8 | 2 | 14.1 | - | 1.1 | - | 1.5 | - | 0.4 | - | 4 |
| Santa Maria | 50.3 | 2 | 29.1 | 1 | 1.8 | - | 4.4 | - | 8.3 | - | 0.6 | - | 3 |
| São Jorge | 39.5 | 1 | 21.4 | 1 | 26.3 | 1 | 2.8 | - | 3.0 | - | 0.7 | - | 3 |
| São Miguel | 49.2 | 12 | 30.6 | 7 | 3.2 | - | 4.2 | 1 | 1.5 | - | 1.2 | - | 20 |
| Terceira | 49.0 | 6 | 28.8 | 3 | 10.1 | 1 | 3.1 | - | 1.5 | - | 0.3 | - | 10 |
| Compensation | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 5 | ||||||
| Total | 46.4 | 30 | 30.9 | 19 | 7.2 | 4 | 3.7 | 2 | 2.6 | 1 | 0.9 | 1 | 57 |
| Source: Azores Government | |||||||||||||