A regional election was held in Madeira on 29 March 2015, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The election was the first in which the former President of the Region,

Alberto João Jardim Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim, Order of Christ (Portugal), GCC, Order of Infante D. Henrique, GCIH (, born 4 February 1943) is a Portuguese politician who was the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal, from 1978 to 20 ...

, was not on the ballot as he earlier stated that he would step down as President and leader of the PSD-Madeira in January 2015. On 29 December 2014, the PSD-Madeira elected

Miguel Albuquerque Miguel Filipe Machado de Albuquerque (born 4 May 1961) is a Portuguese politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the current President of the Regional Government of Madeira. He took office as leader of the PSD of Madeira on 10 January 20 ...

as the new president of the party's regional section. After winning the presidency, Albuquerque stated that he would not assume the Presidency of the Government without an election, so Alberto João Jardim asked President

Aníbal Cavaco Silva Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC, GColL, GColIH (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist who served as the 19th president of Portugal, in office from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016. He had been previously prime minister of Portugal fro ...

to dissolve the Parliament and call an election, which was scheduled for 29 March. The campaign for the regional legislative election in Madeira ran from 15 to 27 March 2015. The results showed that the Social Democrats were reelected for the 11th time in a row and, again, with an absolute majority of 24 seats, against the 25 seats won in 2011. The People's Party was again the second most voted party and the coalition between the Socialists and other smaller parties called ''Change'' suffered a huge defeat by winning fewer votes and seats compared to the combined total of the parties in 2011.

Together for the People Together for the People ( pt, Juntos pelo Povo, JPP) is a Portuguese political party, with its origins in Santa Cruz, Madeira. Its founding principles are Unity, Transparency and Resistance, as evidenced by its symbol. It was legalised by the Po ...

was the surprise of the election winning 10.3% of the vote and winning 5 seats. The

Unitary Democratic Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition ( pt, CDU – Coligação Democrática Unitária, PCP–PEV) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português or PCP) and the Ecologist Party "The Gr ...

increase their result by one MP and the

Left Bloc Left Bloc may refer to: * Left Bloc (Portugal), a political party in Portugal * Left Bloc (Croatia), a political alliance in Croatia * Left Bloc (Hungary) The Left Bloc (in Hungarian: ''Baloldali Blokk'') was a political alliance in Hungary, f ...

returned to the regional parliament with 2 seats. The turnout in these elections was the lowest ever, with 49.6% of voters casting a ballot.

Electoral system

The 47 members of the Madeiran regional parliament are elected in a single constituency by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

under the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest- ...

, coinciding with the territory of the Region.

Parties

The parties that will contest the election and their leaders, are:Sorteio das Candidaturas - ALRAM 2015
'' Comissão Nacional de Eleições'', 17 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015. * ''Change'' ( PS- PTP- PAN- MPT), Victor Freitas * ''Citizen Platform'' ( PPM-

PDA PDA may refer to: Science and technology * Patron-driven acquisition, a mechanism for libraries to purchase books *Personal digital assistant, a mobile device * Photodiode array, a type of detector * Polydiacetylenes, a family of conducting poly ...

), Miguel Fonseca *

(CDU), Edgar Silva * New Democracy Party (PND), Baltazar Aguiar * Workers' Communist Party (PCTP/MRPP), Alexandre Caldeira *

(BE), Roberto Almada *

National Renovator Party Rise Up ( pt, Ergue-te, E), originally the National Renewal Party (, PNR) until July 2020, is a Portuguese far-right nationalist political party. History The PNR was established in February 2000. In July 2020, the party was renamed. Controv ...

(PNR), Álvaro Araújo * People's Party (CDS–PP), José Manuel Rodrigues *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(PSD),

* Socialist Alternative Movement (MAS), José Carlos Gonçalves Jardim *

(JPP), Filipe Sousa

Opinion polling

Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded but both are displayed in bold. The lead column on the right shows the percentage-point difference between the two parties with the highest figures. Poll results use the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication.

Opinion polls

Seats

Opinion polls showing seat projections are displayed in the table below. The highest seat figures in each polling survey have their background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded. 24 seats are required for an

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of Madeira The Legislative Assembly of Madeira ( pt, Assembleia Legislativa da Madeira) is the legislature of the Portuguese autonomous region of Madeira. The last regional election was held on 22 September 2019 and the party with the most votes was the So ...

Voter turnout

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.

Summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=11, Assembleia Madeira 2015

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left,

Parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...

! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± pp swing ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center", MPs ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , MPs %/
votes % , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;",

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;", 2015 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , , 56,574, , 44.36, , 4.2, , 25, , 24, , 1, , 51.06, , 2.1, , 1.15 , - , , , 17,488, , 13.71, , 3.9, , 9, , 7, , 2, , 14.89, , 4.3, , 1.09 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" , , align=left, Change Coalition , , 14,573, , 11.43, , 11.0, , 11, , 6, , 5, , 12.77, , 10.6, , 1.12 , - , , , 13,114, , 10.28, , , , , , 5, , , , 10.64, , , , 1.03 , - , , , 7,060, , 5.54, , 1.8, , 1, , 2, , 1, , 4.25, , 2.1, , 0.77 , - , , , 4,849, , 3.80, , 2.1, , 0, , 2, , 2, , 4.25, , 4.3, , 1.12 , - , , , 2,635, , 2.07, , 1.2, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 2.13, , 0.0, , 1.04 , - , , , 2,137, , 1.67, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , , 1,715, , 1.34, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , , 1,052, , 0.82, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=white align="center" , , align=left, Citizen Platform , , 903, , 0.71, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 122,100 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 95.74 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 1.6 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 47 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 47 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", — , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , , 1,116, , 0.87, , 0.2, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , , 4,323, , 3.39, , 1.5 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 127,539 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 257,232, , 49.58, , 7.8 , - , colspan=11 align=left, Coalition between the PS, PTP, PAN and the MPT. The 11 seats from 2011 are the sum of PS, PTP, PAN and MPT seats.

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...

(2 MPs) and "The Greens" (0 MPs) ran in coalition.
People's Monarchist Party (0 MPs) and

Democratic Party of the Atlantic The Democratic Party of the Atlantic ( pt, Partido Democrático do Atlântico, ) was a political party, based in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. A regional party, whose electorate was concentrated on the islands of São Miguel, it was cr ...

(0 MPs) ran in coalition. , - , colspan=11 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Notes

References

External links

Election resultsComissão Nacional de Eleições
{{Madeira elections 2015 elections in Portugal

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

March 2015 events in Portugal