2012 Azorean regional election

The 2012 Azorean regional election () was an election held on 14 October 2012 to elect the 57 members of the regional legislative assembly for Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. The Socialist Party, under the leadership of Vasco Cordeiro won an absolute majority with 49 percent of the vote, while their direct rivals, the Social Democratic Party (led by Berta Cabral), achieved just 33 percent of the vote. Voter turnout was low (although higher than in 2008) with just under 47.9 percent of the electorate casting their ballot on election day.

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

The elections marked the end of a 16 years of consecutive Socialist mandates led by outgoing regional President Carlos Cesar, who had announced his intention not to continue to lead the Socialist Party (PS) on 8 October 2011. 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. 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.

In 2011, Vasco Cordeiro, who held the position of Secretário Regional da Economia (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 () 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. 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. 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. For his part, Estevão noted that this decision did not imply his party's unconditional support of any PSD government.

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. 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.

On 9 October 2012, the regional public broadcaster, RTP Açores, determined that a regional debate that would bring together leaders of the 12 parties running in the elections was unfeasible. Citing the lack of agreement between party representatives, the public broadcaster elaborated that the 90-minute two-debate model proposed (which would have two debates, one for parties with assembly representation and another with the remainder of the candidates) resulted in a formal complaint to the Commissão Nacional de Eleições (National Commission for Elections) by representatives from the PDA and MRPP. The option to have all parties in the same debate was unlikely also, since it was contrary to "fundamental basics of journalism or television communication models" and impractical.

Leadership changes and challenges Social Democratic Party After the defeat of the PSD in the 2008 regional election, then party leader Carlos Costa Neves resigned and a leadership ballot was called for 17 December 2008. Only one candidate was on the ballot: Incumbent mayor of Ponta Delgada, Berta Cabral. Cabral was easily elected leader and became the first woman to lead a regional party in the Azores:

Socialist Party During the 2008 regional election campaign, Carlos César announced that if he was reelected, this would be his last term as President of the Regional Government. In October 2011, the party's regional committee, by unanimous vote, nominated Vasco Cordeiro as the party's lead candidate for the 2012 regional election:

Electoral system The Azores regional parliament elects 57 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. 5 members are also elected for a Compensation constituency.

Constituency Total MPs Registeredvoters Corvo 2 348 Faial 4 13,166 Flores 3 3,233 Graciosa 3 4,479 Pico 4 13,311 Santa Maria 3 5,208 São Jorge 4 8,786 São Miguel 19 124,387 Terceira 10 52,293 Compensation 5 Total 57 225,211

Issues 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 percent, which was above the national rate (15.0 percent), and 5.9 percent greater than the same time in 2011. It was predicted that the unemployment rate would reach 16% by 2013. 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). 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.

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 (General Inspection of Finances). The report indicated that this figure resulted from debits of the regional administration (427 million Euros), regional public companies (1500 million Euros) and local authorities (327 million Euros). 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. 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. 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.

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, remitted to the Direção-Geral do Orçamento (Directorate-General for the Budget); full cooperation with the Inspecção-Geral de Finanças (General Inspection for Finances); among other details. Many of the parties protested that agreement was equivalent to transferring the control of the Azores to the Ministry of Finances, requesting a debate on the issue in the Regional Assembly. 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. This stance was criticized 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 than what was already required by Regional Finance Laws), respectively. 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.

Political parties 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. 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". Although campaigning in the 2008 and 2012 election in all islands, in the last election the MPT received just over 1 percent in the popular vote, primarily on a campaign of sustainable development.

2012 Azorean regional election

Bron en licentie