1996 Azorean regional election

The 1996 Azores Regional Election () was an election held on 13 October 1996 to elected the 52 seats for the regional legislative assembly of the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores.

The Socialist Party, under the leadership of Carlos César, won with 45 percent of the votes, while their direct rivals, the Social Democratic Party, won 41 percent of the votes, although both parties tied in seats, each party winning 24 MPs. It was the first victory of the Socialists in a regional election since democracy was restored, with the PS holding on to the status as the largest party in the assembly until 2024.

Voter turnout was relatively high with just over 59.17 percent of the electorate casting their ballot on election day.

Electoral system For the 1996 election, the Azores regional parliament elected 52 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.

Constituency Total MPs Registeredvoters Corvo 2 Faial 4 Flores 3 Graciosa 3 Pico 4 Santa Maria 3 São Jorge 4 São Miguel 19 Terceira 10 Total 52

Political parties A total of 6 political parties presented lists of candidates for the regional elections in the Azores, where 191,477 electors could elect 52 deputies to the Legislative Assembly. Of these parties, some of the more prominent:

Democratic Party of the Atlantic (PDA). Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), an alliance of the Greens and Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). People's Democratic Union (UDP). People's Party (CDS-PP), an alliance with the People's Monarchist Party (PPM). Socialist Party (PS), leader Carlos César. Social Democratic Party (PSD), leader Álvaro Dâmaso.

Results The winner of the election was the Socialist Party which, for the first time received a plurality of the public vote, although they obtained a comparable number of representatives in the Regional Assembly.

After 20 years of successive right-of-centre Social Democratic victories, Carlos Manuel Martins do Vale César became the new president of the Regional Government, succeeding Alberto Romão Madruga da Costa.

At the same time, the Democratic Alliance of the Azores lost its only deputy, while the People's Party (which had not participated in the last election) elected three deputies (with 7% of the vote). Meanwhile, the Unitary Democratic Coalition, led by the Portuguese Communist Party maintained its one deputy MP by electing one deputy on the island of Flores. The People's Democratic Union did not elect a single deputy.

Summary of votes and seats

| colspan="10" align=center| |- ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±pp swing ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|MPs |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center"|1992 ! align="center"|1996 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±

|51,906||45.82||9.4||21||24||3||46.15||5.0

|46,449||41.00||12.6||28||24||4||46.15||8.7

|8,346||7.37||||1||3||2||5.77||3.8

|3,940||3.48||1.2||1||1||0||1.92||0.1 |- |style="width: 10px" bgcolor= align="center" | |align=left|People's Democratic Union |983||0.87||||||0||||0.00||

|340||0.30||1.1||0||0||0||0.00||0.0 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|111,964 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|98.83 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.5 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|51 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|52 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |705||0.62||0.1||colspan=5 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |624||0.55||0.6 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|113,293 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||191,477||59.17||3.0 |- | colspan=10 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

| 32.9 | 1 | style="background:; color:white;"|35.8 | 1 |colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 2 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Faial | style="background:; color:white;"|44.6 | 2 | 41.7 | 2 | 6.4

| 5.5

| 4 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Flores | 19.6 | 1 | 30.9 | 1 | 14.9

| style="background:red; color:white;"|33.4 | 1 | 3 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Graciosa | 42.5 | 1 | style="background:; color:white;"|53.2 | 2 | 1.9

| 0.7

| 3 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Pico | 41.6 | 2 | style="background:; color:white;"|50.4 | 2 | 4.7

| 1.7

| 4 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Santa Maria | style="background:; color:white;"|60.6 | 2 | 32.3 | 1 | 4.0

| 1.5

| 3 |- | style="text-align:left;" | São Jorge | 29.7 | 1 | style="background:; color:white;"|56.0 | 3 | 12.5

| 1.0

| 4 |- | style="text-align:left;" | São Miguel | style="background:; color:white;"|46.6 | 10 | 40.3 | 8 | 5.9 | 1 | 3.8

| 19 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Terceira | style="background:; color:white;"|50.4 | 5 | 36.8 | 4 | 10.2 | 1 | 1.2

| 10 |- class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" | style="text-align:left;" | Total | style="background:; color:white;"|45.8 | 24 | 41.0 | 24 | 7.4 | 3 | 3.5 | 1 | 52 |- | colspan=10 style="text-align:left;" | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Aftermath Government approval For the first time since democracy was established, the PSD failed to remain as the most voted party in the Azores and the PS formed a minority government. CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) supported, from the outside, the PS minority government. On 22 November 1996, the regional parliament approved the first center-left government in Azorean history:

1996 Motion of confidenceCarlos César (PS) Ballot → 22 November 1996 Required majority → Simple Absentees Result → Approved Sources

See also 1996 Madeiran regional election

Notes

References

External links Comissão Nacional de Eleições Legislative Assembly of Azores - Official website

1996 Azorean regional election

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