PSD wins elections in Madeira without an absolute majority

According to preliminary official results, the PSD won the early regional legislative elections in Madeira this Sunday, falling short of an absolute majority of five deputies when all parishes were counted.

According to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Social Democrats received 36.13% of the votes (49,103 votes) and 19 seats in the regional parliament, consisting of a total of 47 deputies.

In second place, the PS received 11 elected (21.32% of the votes, a total of 28,981), followed by the PPP with nine (16.89% and 22,958 votes), Chega with four (9.23% and 12,541 votes), CDS-PP with two (3.96% and 5384 votes), as well as IL (2.56% and 3482 votes) and PAN (1.86% and 2531 votes) with one MP each. The BE and the CDU leave the Legislative Assembly compared to the previous composition.

An absolute majority requires 24 seats.

Last year, in the previous regional elections, the SDP and SDS-NP, which competed together, elected 23 deputies, meaning one lacked an absolute majority, so the Social Democrats signed a parliamentary protection agreement with the only PAN deputy.

Then the PS elected 11 deputies (the same as now), Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) – five (four less than this Sunday) and Chegu – four (the same), and the HDZ – Coalition of Democratic Unitaries (PCP-PEV ), the Liberal Initiative (IL), People-Animals-Nature (PAN) and the Left Bloc (BE) each elected one MP.

In this Sunday’s elections, 14 candidates were put to the vote, of which seven failed to elect representatives: in addition to the CDU and BE, which so far had one deputy each, the ADN, Livre, RIR, MPT and PTP.

This Sunday, 46.60% abstained, the same level as in the previous election (46.65%), with 135,909 of the 254,522 registered voters casting ballots.

The early elections in Madeira took place eight months after the last regional legislative elections, after the President of the Republic dissolved the Madeira parliament following a political crisis triggered in January when the leader of the regional government (PSD/CDU-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, was named as a defendant in the case on investigation of suspicions of corruption.

The PSD, which has led the regional executive since the first democratic elections, lost its absolute majority for the first time in 2019 and signed a post-election deal with the Christian Democrats, with whom it governed the last two legislatures.

Following the results of the 2023 elections, the PAN-elected regional deputy, Mónica Freitas, and the PSD/Madeira president, Miguel Albuquerque, concluded a parliamentary influence agreement that allowed the coalition to gain the support of a majority of deputies (24 elected). , albeit tangentially.