Local elections were held in Portugal on 29 September 2013. The elections consisted of three types of elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, namely the elections for the Municipal Chambers, the elections for the Municipal Assemblies, as well as the elections for the lower-level Parish Assemblies, whose winners are elected parish presidents. The latter were held separately in the more than 3,000 parishes around the country. The number of parishes had been reduced by over 1,000 due to a local government reform undertaken by the Pedro Passos Coelho's government.
The process of submitting candidacies for these elections was marked by differences in the interpretation of the electoral law. The law prohibited a candidate, after having served for three terms, to run again for Mayor, Municipal Assemblies or Parish Assemblies. However, the law did not explicitly state whether it prohibited reelection only for the same municipality or parish, or for the same office in any municipality or parish. Candidates affected by this issue included Luís Filipe Menezes (PSD), running in Porto, and Fernando Seara (PSD/CDS–PP), who was standing in Lisbon.
This controversy ended on 5 September 2013 with the decision by Constitutional Court, which allowed mayoral candidates who had already served three consecutive terms to run for election in a different municipality. With the term limit law, 52 percent of incumbent mayors, 160 to be precise, were barred from running for another term.
The Socialist Party (PS) won the largest number of mayors in its history, surpassing its previous best result, achieved just four years earlier. It also won the largest number of mayorships of any party in the history of Portugal till that date.New relationship of trust between Portuguese people and PS, says Seguro. Expresso (in Portuguese.) Retrieved 30 September 2013. The PS also reconquered Coimbra and won in two large strongholds of the Social Democratic Party, Vila Real and Funchal. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) was the biggest loser of these elections, since it lost almost a third of the municipalities it controlled. However, the PSD did gain some traditionally Socialist bastions like Braga and Guarda.
The Democratic Unity Coalition increased its number of municipal chambers as well as its number of councilors by winning several chambers previously held by the Socialists, including winning back their historical stronghold of Loures. However, despite increasing their overall number of mayors, they also lost three chambers they won in 2009 to the Socialists; Chamusca, Crato, and Nisa. In Chamusca they had held the mayorship since 1979. The election was also marked by the strong performances of various independent groups, which won several cities. The most significant was the victory of independent Rui Moreira in Porto, who was supported by CDS–PP.
The CDS – People's Party broke its cycle of decline in municipal elections and won in five municipalities, four more than in 2009. On the other hand, the Left Bloc suffered a heavy defeat, losing their only city and electing fewer councilors than in 2009.
The turnout in these elections was the lowest ever, with 52.6 percent of voters casting their ballot.
Background Electoral system All 308 municipalities are allocated a certain number of councilors to elect corresponding to the number of registered voters in a given municipality. 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.Eleição dos titulares dos órgãos das autarquias locais. Diário da República (in Portuguese.) Retrieved 17 July 2025.
By-elections (2009–2013) During the normal four-year term of local governments, sixteen parishes held a by-election for parish assemblies. No municipal council by-elections were held.
Parties
The main political forces that contested the election were:
Left Bloc (BE) CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) (only in some municipalities)1 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Socialist Party (PS) Social Democratic Party (PSD) (only in some municipalities)1
1 The PSD and the CDS–PP also formed coalitions in several municipalities with the Earth Party (MPT) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM).
Opinion polling
Voter turnout The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day.
Turnout Time 12:00 16:00 19:00 2009 2013 ± 2009 2013 ± 2009 2013 ± Total 21.23% 19.44% 1.79 pp 45.30% 43.43% 1.87 pp 59.03% 52.60% 6.43 pp Sources
Results
Municipal Councils
National summary of votes and seats
! 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 ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Candidacies ! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Councillors ! colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Mayors |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|Total ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|±
|1,812,029||36.26||1.4||302||923||2||149||17
|834,455||16.70||6.3||201||531||135||86||31
|552,690||11.06||1.3||298||213||39||34||6 |- |style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|Social Democratic / People's |379,110||7.59||2.1||72||154||3||16||3 |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=gray align="center" | |align=left|Independents |344,531||6.89||2.8||80||112||45||13||6
|152,073||3.04||0.1||150||47||16||5||4
|120,982||2.42||0.6||112||8||1||0||1 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / MPT |100,437||2.01||2.0||4||11||2||0||0
|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / CDS–PP / PPM |94,015||1.88||0.1||5||21||6||2||1
|style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / PPM |65,102||1.30||—||6||21||—||1||— |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / PPM / MPT |43,312||0.87||—||2||7||—||0||— |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD/ CDS–PP / MPT / PPM |23,551||0.47||2.5||5||14||7||1||0
|23,276||0.47||0.3||27||0||0||0||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" | |align=left|PS / BE / PND / MPT / PTP / PAN |21,102||0.42||—||1||5||—||1||— |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD / MPT / PPM |19,804||0.40||—||2||4||—||0||—
|16,233||0.32||—||12||0||—||0||— |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" | |align=left|CDS–PP / MPT / PPM |9,299||0.19||—||7||1||—||0||— |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|PSD/ CDS–PP / PPM / MPT |8,918||0.18||1.1||1||4||5||0||1
|style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#CC0033 align="center" | |align=left|Labour |8,552||0.17||—||22||0||—||0||—
|6,660||0.13||0.1||8||2||0||0||0 |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" | |align=left|People's / Social Democratic |4,656||0.09||—||4||4||—||0||— |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#005FAD align="center" | |align=left|PPM / PND / PPV |3,634||0.07||—||3||0||—||0||—
|3,002||0.06||0.1||6||0||0||0||0 |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#0093DD align="center" | |align=left|People's / Earth |2,931||0.06||0.1||3||0||0||0||0 |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" | |align=left|PS / PTP / PND / BE |2,157||0.04||—||1||1||—||0||— |- |style="width: 9px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" | |align=left|Social Democratic / Earth |1,897||0.04||—||2||3||—||0||—
|1,272||0.03||0.1||1||0||1||0||0 |- |style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#005FAD align="center" | |align=left|People's Monarchist / PPV |856||0.02||—||1||0||—||0||—
|455||0.01||0.0||1||0||0||0||0 |- |style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#000080 align="center" | |align=left|Portugal Pro-Life |338||0.01||—||1||0||—||0||— |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,657,329 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|93.18 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|3.8 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|— |width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|2,086 |width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|8 |width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|308 |width="45" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0 |- |colspan=2|Blank ballots |193,471||3.87||2.2||colspan=5 rowspan=4| |- |colspan=2|Invalid ballots |147,205||2.95||1.7 |- |colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,998,005 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout ||9,501,103||52.60||6.4 |- | colspan=11 align=left | Source:
Municipality map
City control The following table lists party control in all district capitals, highlighted in bold, as well as in municipalities above 100,000 inhabitants. Population estimates from 2013.
Municipality Population Previous control New control Almada 170,756 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Amadora 175,354 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Aveiro 77,229 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP / PPM Barcelos 119,563 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Beja 35,024 Socialist Party (PS) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Braga 181,847 Socialist Party (PS) PSD / CDS–PP / PPM Bragança 34,681 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD) Cascais 208,514 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP Castelo Branco 54,409 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Coimbra 136,964 PSD / CDS–PP / PPM Socialist Party (PS) Évora 55,053 Socialist Party (PS) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Faro 61,749 PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT Funchal 108,053 Social Democratic Party (PSD) PS / BE / PND / MPT / PTP / PAN Gondomar 167,525 Independent (IND) Socialist Party (PS) Guarda 40,994 Socialist Party (PS) PSD / CDS–PP Guimarães 156,310 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Leiria 125,977 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Lisbon (details) 516,815 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Loures 203,117 Socialist Party (PS) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Maia 135,924 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP Matosinhos 174,690 Socialist Party (PS) Independent (IND) Odivelas 151,012 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Oeiras 172,556 Independent (IND) Independent (IND) Ponta Delgada 68,768 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD) Portalegre 23,915 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Independent (IND) Porto (details) 222,252 PSD / CDS–PP Independent (IND) Santarém 60,257 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD) Santa Maria da Feira 140,038 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD) Seixal 162,516 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Setúbal 118,689 Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) Sintra 379,756 PSD / CDS–PP / PPM / MPT Socialist Party (PS) Viana do Castelo 87,243 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Vila Franca de Xira 139,110 Socialist Party (PS) Socialist Party (PS) Vila Nova de Famalicão 133,711 PSD / CDS–PP PSD / CDS–PP Vila Nova de Gaia 302,828 PSD / CDS–PP Socialist Party (PS) Vila Real 51,009 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Socialist Party (PS) Viseu 98,424 Social Democratic Party (PSD) Social Democratic Party (PSD)
Municipal Assemblies