The 2005 Lisbon local election was held on 9 October 2005 to elect the members of the Lisbon City Council.
Carmona Rodrigues, who was mayor during Santana Lopes' short period as prime minister from 2004 to 2005, was elected for a full term with 42% of the votes, defeating Manuel Maria Carrilho, from the Socialist Party, who achieved only about 27% of the votes.
The Unitary Democratic Coalition ran alone this time, presenting Ruben de Carvalho and achieving 11% of the votes, which guaranteed two Communist councilors. The Left Bloc, with José Sá Fernandes as the candidate for Mayor, managed to gain a councillor seat for the first time. The CDS – People's Party, with Maria José Nogueira Pinto, managed to keep its councillor, despite losing some votes.
Background In the 2001 election, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) led by Pedro Santana Lopes, defeated incumbent Mayor João Soares, supported by the coalition between the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCP), by a margin of about 0.3%.
In 2004, after Durão Barroso resigned as prime minister to assume the office of President of the European Commission, Pedro Santana Lopes was chosen as prime minister, being replaced as mayor by Carmona Rodrigues. He assumed the office until Santana Lopes' defeat in the 2005 legislative election, after which Santana Lopes regained his office as Mayor of Lisbon.
Candidate selection The PS, looking to take back the city after four years of Social Democratic control, tried to recruit a candidate. In 2004, that choice was expected to fall on José Sócrates, former Minister of the Environment, but, after the resignation of Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues as Secretary-general of PS, Sócrates announced his candidacy and won the leadership of the party, going on to win the 2005 legislative election a few months later. After a brief speculation that Ferro Rodrigues could be the candidate, the choice eventually fell on Manuel Maria Carrilho, the former Minister of Culture, who announced his candidacy on March 2005.
On the side of the PSD, after the return of Santana Lopes as Mayor, he intended to seek reelection. This candidacy was, however, vetoed by the new party president, Luís Marques Mendes, who preferred Carmona Rodrigues as the mayoral candidate, with him being selected as candidate in April 2005.
The decision about the continuation of the PS/PCP coalition was on the table, with the PCP, with Ruben de Carvalho as their candidate, seeking to keep the coalition with the same distribution of seats that had been in place since the 1989 local election, while the PS defended that the distribution should be based on the results of the latest legislative election, while also vetoing the entrance of the Ecologist Party "The Greens", the junior partner of the Unitary Democratic Coalition, in a coalition. As such, the negotiations failed, and each party ran their own candidacy.
Electoral system Each party or coalition must present a list of candidates. The winner of the most voted list for the municipal council is automatically elected mayor, similar to first-past-the-post (FPTP). The lists are closed and the seats in each municipality are apportioned according to the D'Hondt method. Unlike in national legislative elections, independent lists are allowed to run.
Parties and candidates Party/CoalitionPoliticalpositionCandidate2001 resultVotes (%)SeatsPSDSocial Democratic PartyCentre-rightCarmona Rodrigues42.0%PSSocialist PartyCentre-leftManuel Maria Carrilho41.7%CDUUnitary Democratic Coalition Left-wingto far-leftRuben de CarvalhoCDS–PPCDS – People's PartyRight-wing Maria José Nogueira Pinto7.6%BELeft BlocLeft-wingto far-left José Sá Fernandes3.8%PCTPPortuguese Workers' Communist PartyFar-leftCarlos Paisana0.8%PHHumanist PartyCentre-leftPedro Cruz Braga0.4%PNRNational Renovator PartyFar-rightJosé Pinto Coelho0.2%
Opinion polling
Polling firm/Link Fieldwork date Sample size PSD PS CDU CDS BE Lead 2005 local election 9 Oct 2005 42.4 26.6 11.4 5.9 7.9 5.815.8 UCP 9 Oct 2005 ? 40–44 26–30 10–13 5–7 8–10 –14 Eurosondagem 2–5 Oct 2005 1,56941.4 30.5 10.1 5.5 8.5 4.0 10.9 Intercampus 1–5 Oct 2005 1,001 34.334.7 12.0 4.9 6.9 7.2 0.4 Aximage 3–4 Oct 2005 50038.5 30.2 8.0 5.6 7.7 10.0 8.3 UCP 1–2 Oct 2005 2,41036 31 10 7 10 6 5 Marktest 1 Oct 2005 50338.2 27.7 9.2 8.0 9.2 8.3 10.5 Aximage 24–27 Sep 2005 50039.9 25.7 6.8 4.4 5.7 17.5 14.2 UCP 7–11 Jul 2005 989 3641 6 3 8 5 5 Eurosondagem 20–22 Jun 2005 1,52536.4 29.6 7.8 4.1 7.5 14.6 6.8 Aximage 22–23 Mar 2005 60047.2 46.6 6.2 0.6 Eurosondagem 15–16 Mar 2005 1,048 4144 15 32005 legislative election20 Feb 2005 24.842.58.210.58.75.317.72004 EP election13 Jun 2004 33.441.29.6PSD and CDS–PP ran in a coalition during the 2004 European Parliament election.8.57.37.82002 legislative election17 Mar 2002 38.037.67.18.85.13.40.4 2001 local election 16 Dec 2001 42.0 41.7 7.6 3.8 5.00.3
Results
Municipal Council
| colspan="11" 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="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Councillors |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±
|119,837||42.43||0.5||8||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" | |align=left|Socialist |75,022||26.56||||5||1
|32,254||11.42||||2||2
|22,342||7.91||4.1||1||1
|16,723||5.92||1.6||1||0
|2,689||0.95||0.2||0||0
|798||0.28||0.1||0||0
|507||0.18||0.0||0||0 |- |colspan=2 width="330" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|270,172 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|95.65 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.2 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|17 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |7,538||2.67||0.8||colspan=3 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |4,733||1.68||0.5 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|282,443 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||536,450||52.65||2.4 |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source: Lisbon 2005 election results
Municipal Assembly
| colspan="11" 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="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Seats |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±
|107,917||38.21||1.6||23||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" | |align=left|Socialist |77,789||27.54||||16||
|36,569||12.95||||7||
|26,434||9.36||4.5||5||3
|17,700||6.27||2.4||3||2
|3,613||1.28||0.2||0||0 |- |colspan=2 width="330" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|270,022 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|95.61 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|1.2 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|54 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |7,735||2.74||0.6||colspan=3 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |4,676||1.66||0.5 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|282,433 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||536,450||52.65||2.4 |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source: Lisbon 2005 election results
Parish Assemblies
|- class="unsortable" !rowspan=2|Parish!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2|TotalS |- class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 | PSD !colspan=2 | PS !colspan=2 | CDU !colspan=2 | BE !colspan=2 | CDS–PP !colspan=2 | IND |- | style="text-align:left;" | Ajuda | 22.0 | 3 | 30.5 | 4 | style="background:#FF0000; color:white;"| 50.3 | 5 | 7.1 | 1 | 2.7
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Alcântara | 27.7 | 4 | 24.6 | 3 | style="background:#FF0000; color:white;"| 31.1 | 5 | 7.7 | 1 | 4.0
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Alto do Pina | style="background:; color:white;"| 47.9 | 7 | 24.7 | 3 | 8.9 | 1 | 7.6 | 1 | 6.9 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Alvalade | style="background:; color:white;"| 50.1 | 7 | 20.4 | 3 | 7.8 | 1 | 7.3 | 1 | 10.4 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Ameixoeira | style="background:; color:white;"| 30.3 | 4 | 29.1 | 4 | 24.9 | 4 | 7.3 | 1 | 3.8
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Anjos | style="background:; color:white;"| 38.6 | 6 | 26.7 | 4 | 12.2 | 1 | 8.5 | 1 | 8.6 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Beato | 25.8 | 4 | style="background:#FF66FF; color:white;"| 31.7 | 5 | 23.1 | 3 | 8.0 | 1 | 4.0
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Benfica | style="background:; color:white;"| 37.7 | 8 | 32.4 | 7 | 12.9 | 3 | 8.3 | 1 | 4.0
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 19 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Campo Grande | style="background:; color:white;"| 42.4 | 6 | 26.9 | 4 | 12.3 | 1 | 7.1 | 1 | 7.3 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Campolide | style="background:; color:white;"| 33.4 | 5 | 30.2 | 4 | 16.5 | 3 | 9.0 | 1 | 6.5
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Carnide | 25.5 | 4 | 24.2 | 3 | style="background:#FF0000; color:white;"| 35.4 | 5 | 6.2 | 1 | 4.3
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Castelo | 7.9
| 17.3 | 1 | style="background:#FF0000; color:white;"| 59.9 | 5 | 10.3 | 1 | 1.5
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 7 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Charneca | 23.8 | 3 | style="background:#FF66FF; color:white;"| 36.4 | 5 | 25.0 | 4 | 6.3 | 1 | 3.6
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Coração de Jesus | style="background:; color:white;"| 40.3 | 6 | 25.7 | 4 | 10.1 | 1 | 10.6 | 1 | 8.0 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Encarnação | 28.6 | 3 | style="background:#FF66FF; color:white;"| 30.2 | 3 | 14.4 | 1 | 8.1 | 1 | 3.6
| 10.6 | 1 | 9 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Graça | style="background:; color:white;"| 36.0 | 5 | 31.4 | 5 | 15.3 | 2 | 9.8 | 1 | 2.8
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Lapa | style="background:; color:white;"| 45.4 | 6 | 21.1 | 3 | 7.6 | 1 | 7.2 | 1 | 15.0 | 2 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 13 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Lumiar | style="background:; color:white;"| 42.9 | 9 | 27.2 | 6 | 10.8 | 2 | 8.2 | 1 | 6.3 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 19 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Madalena | 22.2 | 2 | 25.1 | 2 | style="background:#FF0000; color:white;"| 35.0 | 3 | 9.4
| 5.4
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 7 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Mártires | style="background:; color:white;"| 38.4 | 3 | 35.5 | 3 | 6.4
| 5.9
| 9.9 | 1 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | 7 |- | style="text-align:left;" | Marvila | 22.6 | 5 | style="background:#FF66FF; color:white;"| 33.2 | 7 | 25.0 | 6