Azores Regional Election, 2012

The Azores Regional Election (2012) ( pt, Eleições Regionais dos Açores, 2012) was an election held on 14 October 2012 for the legislative assembly and government of the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. in which the Socialist Party nominee, under the leadership of Vasco Cordeiro won an absolute majority with 49% of the vote, in comparison to their direct rivals, the Social Democratic Party (led by Berta Cabral), who achieved only 33% of the vote. Voter turnout was low (although higher than in 2008) with just under 47.9% of the electorate casting their ballot on election day.

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.

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 ( pt, 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. 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. online 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.

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%, which was above the national rate (15.0%), and 5.9% 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 authories (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 urcandidates 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% 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"''. 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. Running on an autonomic campaign of "Azores for the Azoreans", the party supports home rule and traditional commerce; 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.
* Left Bloc (BE), leader Zuraida Soares. On the first day of official campaigning the leader of the Left Bloc introduced a comprehensive transport plan for the region, suggesting the ''low-cost'' entrants into the regional market was highly dubious. Further, the party supported the defense of the region's natural resources, and warned of the peril of opening the Azores to mineral and water exploration.
* New Democracy Party (PND), leader Joel Viana
* Party for Animals and Nature (PAN)
* 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), sought to translate its high visibility nationally into a comparable presence locally, where the party had five seats. Their 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.
* Plataforma de Cidadania (PC), 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.
* Portuguese Labour Party

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