2012 Azorean regional election: Difference between revisions

Azores regional elections, 2012

← 2008 14 October 2012[1] Next →
57 seats to the Legislative Assembly of Azores[2] 29 seats needed for a majority
Leader Vasco Cordeiro Berta Cabral Party PS PSD Leader since 2012 2008 Leader's seat São Miguel[3] Last election 30 seats, 49.9% 18 seats, 30.3%
Incumbent President Carlos César PS

The Azores Regional Election (2012) (Portuguese: Eleições Regionais dos Açores, 2012) is an election held on 14 October 2012 for the legislative assembly and government of the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores.^[1][4]

The election was called by the President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva after consulting with all the parties represented in the Azorean Legislative Assembly.^[1][4][5] Each of the parties had preposed different dates for these elections, with the Communists and Bloc representatives prefering the 21 October 2012, while the Social Democrats favouring the 7 or 14 October.^[5] The PPM preferred the 30 September, the earliest date that these elections could be undertaken, defending that "the faster the better", although also proposing the 7 October, as an alternative.^[5]

The elections marked the end of a 16 years of consecutive Socialist mandates lead by outgoing regional President Carlos Cesar, who had announced his intention not to continue to lead the Socialist Party (PS).^[5] In his place, the PS nominated Vasco Cordeiro to represent their party during several months of pre-campaigning against their rivals the Social Democrats (PSD), under the stewardship of then incumbent mayor of Ponta Delgada, Berta Cabral.^[5] The election occurred as a culmination of a years round of campaigning that started with the nomination of Vasco Cordeiro to replace the outgoing Carlos Cesar as leader of the party.^[6]

In 2011, Vasco Cordeiro, who held the position of Secretária Regional da Ecónomia (Regional Secretary for the Economy) renounced his position in the government to dedicate himself to the elections, and was replaced by Luisa Schanderl in that post. Meanwhile, Berta Cabral continued to function as the mayor (Portuguese: Presidente) of Ponta Delgada until the end of July 2012, when she renounced her position in favour of her Vice-Presidente.

All 57 deputies of the regional assembly, distributed among the nine islands of the archipelago, were up for renewal.^[2] On 23 August 2012, Berta Cabral indicated her parties inclination not to run against the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) on the island of Corvo, where two seats were up for grab.^[7] Citing her party's intention to defeat the Socialists using a "winning strategy", the PSD leader advised that the PSD would not run candidates against PPM leader Paulo Estevão.^[7] For his part, Estevão noted that this decision did not imply his party's unconditional support of any PSD government.^[8]

During the campaign, Cybermap Lda., received national and regional publicity when its managing director revealed their involvement in a project to publicize realtime election results over the internet to mobile devices, including smartphones and tablet readers.^[9][10] This was the first time in Portugal that election content would be developed and publicized in realtime during any election, a project that also included information on local candidates, geographic distribution and historical results.^[10]

The influence of the European financial crisis, and continued latency in the Portuguese economy did not escape the election campaign. The unemployment rate in the Azores had grown to 15.6%, which was above the national rate (15.0%), and 5.9% greater then the same time in 2011.^[11] It was predicted that the unemployment rate would reach 16% by 2013.^[11] The region is heavily dependent on the public sector-driven economy, and the Government has not reduced, but actually hired more people to the Regional Secretaries (through public competition or through unemployment support programs).^[12] These activities have actually hidden the real increase in the unemployment rate, while measures to curtail the rise in public spending and implement austerity measures to reduce the debit did not occur.^[12]

An undercurrent of these elections was the state of regional public finances, with the Azorean public debit exceeding 2300 million Euros as of 31 December 2011, in a report issued by the national Inspeção Geral de Finanças (Inspector General of Finances).^[13][14] The report indicated that this figure resulted from debits of the regional administration (427 million Euros), regional public companies (1500 million Euros) and local authories (327 million Euros).^[13] In addition to a warning about the regions "actual risk of budgetary slippage", the report also slighted future annual expenditures which would put in risk the state of the regions finances. ^[13] These were, specifically, two public-private partnerships worth 1600 million Euros: the SCUT roadway concession, worth 1300 million Euros annually, and 330 million Euros for the Hospital da Terceira. ^[13] The IGF concluded that "no risk requiring significant support" existed, but that unplanned costs (such as the Regional Health Plan) would require the region to "contain, freeze or reduce" incentives provided in some regional laws, in order to avoid the increase in public spending.^[13]

The issue of the region's public finances also influenced continued talk of reinforcing the archipelago's autonomy following a memorandum of understanding signed between the Portuguese and (proposed by) the Azorean Regional Governments, that provided for a 10-year 135 million Euro loan. Among the requirements of this understanding, the loan was dependent on: the guarantee that the Azores followed the objectives of the Programa de Ajustamento Econónomico e Financeiro (Program for Economic and Financial Adjustment); stabilized public finances; refrain from aggravating public finances (directly or indirectly) through the remuneration of public service employees, the reduction of public servants inline with the objectives of the PAEF; a promise not to create new public-private partnerships that resulted in new financial burdens; an analysis of existing public-partnerships (within three months from the memorandum's signing) as a precondition for funding; regular monthly bulletins on the state of Regional finances, remited to the Direção-Geral do Orçamento (Directorate-General for the Budget); full cooperation with the Inspecção-Geral de Finanças (Inspection General for Finances); among other details.^[15] Many of the parties protested that agreement was equivalent to transfering the control of the Azores to the Ministry of Finances, requesting a debate on the issue in the Regional Assembly.^[16][17] Berta Cabral, leader of the PSD Açores, although aligned with the national government, cited her willingness to alter the terms of the memorandum if her party was elected.^[18][19] This stance was critizced by both the CDS-PP and PS leaders the next day, who cited the legality of the document and the desperation on the part of the PSD (stating that the understanding did not demand anything more then required by Regional Finance Laws), respectively.^[20][21] Nonetheless, the PS leader used his campaign to criticize the national government for policies that "brought more austerity to the Azores", citing measures by Vitor Gaspar (Minister of Finances) following the fifth intervention by the Troika (a tripartite committee led by the European Commission with the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) delegation.^[22]

A total of 12 political parties resented lists of candidates for the regional elections in the Azores, where 225,211 electors could elect 57 deputies to the Legislative Assembly.^[23] Of these parties, some of the more prominent:

• Earth Party (MPT), leader Manuel Moniz. Citing the unemployment situation, the party began its campaign extolling "that 35 percent of [our] candidates are unemployed...because they exist", centring on the issues of the economy and unemployment, and suggesting that they would campaign across all the islands to "battle...abstention, the lies and the incompetence".^[24] Although campaigning in the 2008 and 2012 election in all islands, in the last election the MPT received just over 1% in the popular vote, primarily on a campaign of sustainable development.
• Democratic Party of the Atlantic (PDA), leader Rui Matos. The party leader presented its candidate list on 30 August 2012, affirming it as the only party "entirely Azorean", and that they had recruited candidates from Facebook, citing "We don't have famous people, but we have people of every class and profession, from lawyers to the unemployed and domestics".^[25] The party, which received over 1% of the popular vote did not achieve any seats in the last regional assembly, and hoped to elect at least one.^[25] Running on a autonomic campaign of "Azores for the Azoreans", the party supports home rule; party leader (Matos) suggested that the sale of the Banco Comercial dos Açores (BCA) was lamentable, since the financial insolvency of the local construction sector could only be resolved by the public treasury.^[25][26][27]
• Left Bloc (BE), leader Zuraida Soares
• New Democracy Party (PND), leader Joel Viana
• Party for Animals and Nature (PAN)^[23]
• People's Monarchist Party (PPM), leader Paulo Estêvâo
• People's Party (CDS–PP), leader Artur Lima. The CDS Açores, following a strong showing nationally (and PSD-CDS government under Pedro Passos Coelho), saught to translate its high visibility nationally into a comparable presence locally, where the party had five seats. There leader attempted to distinguish his party from the two mainline parties, noting their excessive promises, pre-campaign spending, little differences in campaign platforms and suggesting a need for a "radical change in the development paradigm taken in the past years during the PSD governance and the various mandates of the PS government.^[28][29]
• Plataforma de Cidadania, leader Rui Simas; a parliamentary coalition and citizens group, aligned with the PPM and PND; its platform included the reduction of the number of deputies from 57 to 41; the elimination of parliamentary meetings, which would be completed by teleconference (reducing inter-island transport subsidies for politicians); and the adoption of week-long assembly sessions, as well as the reduction of mandatory breaks between sessions.^[30][30]
• Portuguese Labour Party (PTP)^[23]
• Portuguese Workers' Communist Party (PCTP/MRPP)^[23]
• Socialist Party (PS), leader Vasco Cordeiro. The PS, under its new leader, began its campaign highlighting the 16 years of experience, running on a campaign of "inherited good governance", built on managing the public finances that included Agriculture, the Fisheries, Tourism, Education and Health.^[31] He also promoted the "need to do more", since there were "things that did not run well, [and] there were solutions that we applied that did not result in ways that we expected". The defense of Azorean autonomy was also promoted by the PS candidates, citing the centralization of the national government and examples, such as the "financial afixiation" at the University of the Azores and other institutions, as examples.^[31] This need for government support was also extended to intercontinental air travel, where the candidate promoted the reduction of air transport costs as a way to promote tourism and development of the economy beyond the Azores.^[24]
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), leader Berta Cabral. ^[32] The second-largest party, in terms of representatives elected, the PSD leader promoted "change" in her campaign, tying a future PSD government in the Azores to the changes in the national government, where Pedro Passos Coelho was elected Prime Minister in 2011, but ever mindful of distinguishing her party's independence from the national leadership and defending local interests over national allegiance.^[33] The party campaign also tied economic crisis on the continent with the Socrates government and reinforced the link to the regional PS government under Carlos Cesar, highlighting that "in the Azores, the situation is no different"; there was a veiled reference to subterfuge by the Cesar government and financial situation in the region.^[33] In addition, she defended that a PSD government would implement policies that would reduce the number of full-time politicians, reduce sumptuous governmental consumption (such as equalization subsidies for ministers, the expensive hotel stays in Lisbon), and frugal public spending, that would allow more funds for the middle class and disadvantaged in society.^[19]
• Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU), is a coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) Açores and the Greens (PEV), leader Aníbal Pires. Upon submitting their candidates list PCP Açores leader Anibal Pires affirmed that the CDU was "an alternative vote...an alternative political project, with a global vision and integrated in a region where each island has its place and, above all its value".^[34][35] The party also affirmed their idea for providing a support for public service workers, who had lost their vacation and holiday compliments in the national financial adjustment program (PAEF).^[36]

Data released by the Constitutional Courts indicated that the PS was the party with the largest budget, with almost 996,000 Euros in its war-chest, followed by the PSD, with 651,000 Euros, while the PPM was the group with the smallest budget, with only 3,000 Euros.^[23] It was anticipated that the PS would spend 261,000 Euros in its campaign; followed by the CDU, with 65,000 Euros; and the CDS-PP, with 61,000 Euros, while the PPM little more then 1,450 Euros.^[23] The Platforma de Cidadania (the alliance between the PPM and PND), with a global budget of 48,000 Euros, dedicated the majority of their cash reserves to public relation firms and market studies (where they spent 26,000 Euros).^[23] For the PSD, which received 350,633 Euros of state subsidies, the highest expenditure item, 180,000 Euros, was devoted to purchase giveaways and other offers.^[23] For its part the PDA, the only national party with their headquarters in the Azores, expected to spend 8,000 Euros, with 5,000 Euros for posters and pamphlets in order to elect their first parliamentary seat.^[23]

On 11 September 2012, three of the smaller parties in the regional elections signed a protocol to create a parliamentary coalition around the Plataforma de Cidadnia, in order to galvanize public outrage and disinterest in the mainline candidates.^[30] The Plataforma, which included the institutional support of the PPM and PND, would have political autonomy in any legislature it was a part, following strictly the electoral program established by its constituents (who were petitioned to register online).^[30]

The following table contains the number of seats that each constituency can elect.^[37]

Opinion polling for parliamentary represented parties is as such:

Notes

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Legislative Assembly of Azores - Official website