2009 Lisbon local election

The 2009 Lisbon local election was held on 11 October 2009 to choose the members of the Lisbon City Council. This election was important because it decided who would lead the city for the next few years.

The person who had been mayor since 2007, António Costa, won the election. He got 44 percent of the votes and had enough support to lead alone. He worked together with Helena Roseta and her group called Citizen for Lisbon. His main opponent was a former mayor and Prime Minister, Pedro Santana Lopes, who got almost 39 percent of the votes but did not win.

Another group, the Unitary Democratic Coalition, chose Ruben de Carvalho to be their candidate again, but they did not do as well as before, getting only 8 percent of the votes. A group called the Left Bloc chose Luís Fazenda as their candidate, but they lost the seat they had before.

More people voted in this election than in the one held in 2007. About 53.4 percent of people in Lisbon who could vote, actually cast their ballots on election day.

Background

The 2007 by-election happened because the former mayor, Carmona Rodrigues, lost support after a big debate over a building plan by a company named Bragaparques. This plan was checked by the Public Prosecution Office. Because of this, the party called PSD stopped supporting Carmona, and a new election was called quickly. In that election, António Costa from the PS party became mayor.

Electoral system

In the Lisbon local election, each group had to submit a list of candidates. The group with the most votes for the city council would have its leader become the mayor. The seats on the council were divided using a special counting method called the D'Hondt method. Independent groups were also allowed to join the race.

Parties and candidates

Party/Coalition			Political position	Candidate	2007 result
Party/Coalition			Political position	Candidate	Votes (%)	Seats
PS	Socialist Party Partido Socialista	Centre-left	António Costa	39.8%	8 / 17
LCS	Lisbon with Way Lisboa com Sentido PPD/PSD, CDS–PP, MPT, PPM	Centre-right	Pedro Santana Lopes	20.5%	3 / 17
CDU	Unitary Democratic Coalition Coligação Democrática Unitária PCP, PEV	Left-wing to far-left	Ruben de Carvalho	9.4%	2 / 17
BE	Left Bloc Bloco de Esquerda	Left-wing to far-left	Luís Fazenda	6.8%	1 / 17
PCTP	Portuguese Workers' Communist Party Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses	Far-left	Carlos Paisana	1.6%	0 / 17
PNR	National Renovator Party Partido Nacional Renovador	Far-right	José Pinto Coelho	0.8%	0 / 17
MEP	Hope for Portugal Movement Movimento Esperança por Portugal	Centre-right	José Ramos	—N/a	—N/a
MMS	Merit and Society Movement Movimento Mérito e Sociedade	Centre-right	António Coelho da Costa	—N/a	—N/a
PTP	Portuguese Labour Party Partido Trabalhista Português	Centre-left	Bruno de Sousa	—N/a	—N/a

Opinion polling

Polling

Exit poll

Polling firm/Link	Fieldwork date	Sample size	PS	PSD CDS MPT PPM	CDU	BE	O	Lead
Polling firm/Link	Fieldwork date	Sample size					O	Lead

2009 local election	11 Oct 2009	—N/a	44.0 9	38.7 7	8.1 1	4.6 0	4.6 0	5.3

UCP–CESOP	11 Oct 2009	?	44.0– 48.0 8/9	34.0– 38.0 6/7	8.5– 10.5 1/2	3.0– 5.0 0/1	–	10.0
Eurosondagem	11 Oct 2009	?	41.2– 45.4	36.9– 41.1	6.6– 8.8	3.9– 6.1	–	4.3
Intercampus	11 Oct 2009	?	42.8– 48.4	34.7– 40.3	7.1– 10.7	3.0– 5.6	–	8.1
Aximage	6–8 Oct 2009	802	44.4	38.4	6.4	6.0	4.8	6.0
Marktest	5–7 Oct 2009	510	45.0	37.9	7.3	5.4	4.4	7.1
UCP–CESOP	3–6 Oct 2009	2,221	45	33	9	8	5	12
Eurosondagem	1–6 Oct 2009	1,022	41.9	36.9	8.4	8.0	4.8	5.0
Intercampus	28–30 Sep 2009	800	41.4	33.1	10.4	8.3	6.8	8.3
2009 legislative election	27 Sep 2009	—N/a	34.8 (7)	40.9 (8)	8.6 (1)	9.8 (1)	5.9 (0)	6.1
Marktest	31 Aug–2 Sep 2009	500	43.8	32.7	7.0	9.2	7.3	8.3
UCP–CESOP	28 Jun–4 Jul 2009	716	38	37	7	9	9	1
2009 EP election	7 Jun 2009	—N/a	25.6 (5)	39.8 (8)	10.8 (2)	12.4 (2)	11.4 (0)	14.2

2007 by-election	15 Jul 2007	—N/a	39.8 8	20.5 3	9.5 2	6.8 1	23.4 3	19.3

Results

The 2009 Lisbon local election happened on October 11, 2009. It was to choose the members of the Lisbon City Council. António Costa, who had been mayor since 2007, won with 44 percent of the votes. He got enough votes to win without needing others. He worked with Helena Roseta and her group called Citizen for Lisbon.

2009 Lisbon local election