1976 Portuguese local elections

1976 Portuguese local elections

12 December 1976
All 304 Portuguese municipalities and 4,260 Portuguese Parishes All 1,908 local government councils
Turnout	64.7%
First party Second party   Leader Mário Soares Francisco Sá Carneiro Party PS PSD Popular vote 1,377,684 1,014,092 Percentage 33.0% 24.3% Mayors 115 115 Councillors 691 624   Third party Fourth party   Leader Álvaro Cunhal Diogo Freitas do Amaral Party PCP CDS Alliance FEPU Popular vote 720,499 693,766 Percentage 17.3% 16.6% Mayors 37 36 Councillors 268 317

Local elections were held in Portugal on Sunday, 12 December 1976. They were the first local elections in Portugal. The democratic revolution of 1974 introduced the concept of democratic local power, that should be exerted by the citizens in their towns and cities. These elections ended a cycle of three elections in 1976, after the 1976 legislative election in April and the 1976 Presidential election in June.

The elections were meant to elect for the first time the administration of the about 300 municipalities of the country and of the about 4000 parishes that composed those 300 municipalities. They consisted of three elections in each of the municipalities; the election for the municipal chamber, whose winner is automatically elected mayor, similar to first-past-the-post (FPTP), the election for the municipal assembly and the lower-level election for the parish assembly, whose winner is also automatically elected as President.

The Socialist Party gathered the majority of the voting and mandates, beating the Social Democratic Party, although both parties tied in number of elected mayors, 115. The Communists led coalition, the Electoral Front United People, dominated the election in the South of the country, with more than 17 percent of the votes and elected 37 mayors. The right-wing Democratic Social Center, following their strong showing in the 1976 April legislative election, achieved its best result ever in local elections, almost 17 percent of the votes and 36 mayors.

Turnout in these elections was quite low, as 64.7% of the electorate cast a ballot, compared with the 83.5% turnout rate of the 1976 general elections in April.

Parties

The main political forces involved in the election:

• Democratic and Social Center (CDS)
• Electoral Front United People (FEPU)
• Groups for the Dinamization of the People's Unity (GDUPs)
• Socialist Party (PS)
• Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Results

Municipal Chamber

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1976 Municipal Councils elections results

Parties		Votes	%	Candidacies	Councillors	Mayors
					Total	Total
	Socialist	1,377,684	33.01		691	115
	Social Democratic	1,014,092	24.30		624	115
	Electoral Front United People	720,499	17.26		268	37
	Democratic and Social Centre	693,766	16.62		317	36
	GDUPs	103,784	2.49		5	0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	27,505	0.59		0	0
	PCP(m-l)	15,267	0.37		0	0
	People's Monarchist	7,528	0.18		3	1
	Internationalist Communist League	3,464	0.08		0	0
	Workers' Revolutionary	273	0.00		0	0
	United People Alliance	123	0.00		0	0
Total valid		3,995,905	95.74	—	1,908	304
Blank ballots		89,073	2.13
Invalid ballots		88,783	2.13
Total		4,173,761	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,454,990	64.66

Municipality map

Most voted parties or coalitions in each Municipality.
Municipalities won by:
■ - PS: 115
■ - PSD: 115
■ - FEPU: 37
■ - CDS: 36
■ - PPM: 1

City control

The following table lists party control in all district capitals, highlighted in bold, as well as in municipalities above 100,000 inhabitants. Population estimates from the 1970 Census.

Municipality	Population	New control
Almada	107,575		Electoral Front United People (FEPU)
Aveiro	49,808		Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)
Beja	36,384		Electoral Front United People (FEPU)
Braga	96,918		Socialist Party (PS)
Bragança	33,070		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Cascais	92,907		Socialist Party (PS)
Castelo Branco	55,195		Socialist Party (PS)
Coimbra	110,553		Socialist Party (PS)
Évora	47,244		Electoral Front United People (FEPU)
Faro	30,973		Socialist Party (PS)
Funchal	101,810		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Gondomar	105,075		Socialist Party (PS)
Guarda	39,741		Socialist Party (PS)
Guimarães	122,719		Socialist Party (PS)
Leiria	80,241		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Lisbon	769,044		Socialist Party (PS)
Loures	166,167		Socialist Party (PS)
Matosinhos	109,225		Socialist Party (PS)
Oeiras	180,194		Socialist Party (PS)
Ponta Delgada	67,975		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Portalegre	25,800		Socialist Party (PS)
Porto	301,655		Socialist Party (PS)
Santarém	56,440		Socialist Party (PS)
Setúbal	65,230		Socialist Party (PS)
Sintra	124,893		Socialist Party (PS)
Viana do Castelo	70,455		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Vila Nova de Gaia	180,875		Socialist Party (PS)
Vila Real	44,550		Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Viseu	73,010		Democratic and Social Centre (CDS)

Municipal Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1976 Municipal Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	Candidacies	Mandates
					Total
	Socialist	1,392,181	33.39		1,698
	Social Democratic	1,022,168	24.52		1,658
	Electoral Front United People	756,856	18.15		679
	Democratic and Social Centre	685,574	16.44		1,053
	GDUPs	100,872	2.42		43
	PCP(m-l)	5,363	0.13		2
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	5,214	0.13		0
	People's Monarchist	3,695	0.09		2
	Workers' Revolutionary	2,634	0.06		0
	Christian Democratic	970	0.02		0
Total valid		3,975,596	95.24	—	5,135
Blank ballots		104,185	2.50
Invalid ballots		89,241	2.26
Total		4,169,022	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,453,783	64.60

Parish Assemblies

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 12 December 1976 Parish Assemblies elections results

Parties		Votes	%	Candidacies	Mandates	Presidents
					Total	Total
	Socialist	1,339,460	32.69		8,345
	Social Democratic	996,972	24.33		9,076
	Electoral Front United People	629,812	15.37		2,291
	Democratic and Social Centre	617,690	15.07		5,077
	Independents	162,367	3.96		1,230
	GDUPs	93,967	2.29		99
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	13,721	0.33		2
	People's Monarchist	1,788	0.04		12
	PCP(m-l)	1,666	0.04		3
	Internationalist Communist League	71	0.00		0
Total valid		3,915,120	95.55	—	26,135
Blank ballots		88,985	2.17
Invalid ballots		93,461	2.28
Total		4,097,566	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,246,594	65.60

Maps

• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Councils in each district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Municipal Assemblies in sech district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
• 
  The first and the second most voted parties in Parish Assemblies in each district. (Azores and Madeira are not shown)

Notes

• The source of the voting data is the Portuguese Electoral Commission Archived 2020-02-05 at the Wayback Machine

Further Notes:

• Electoral Front United People (FEPU) was composed by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE) and the People's Socialist Front (FSP).
• 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.

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições