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In Alentejo, the only CCDR with two candidates, the head of the Alentejo and Ribatejo Regional Tourism Authority, António Ceia da Silva (PS), won the elections by 94 votes, which were also contested by the current president of the CCDR, Roberto Grilo, who ran as an independent.
In the North, the region with the largest number of voters, the former rector of the Universidad del Minho António Cunha was elected, the only candidate who assumed that the invitation to his candidacy was the result of “an agreement between the two parties”, PS and PSD .
In the Algarve, the president is José Apolinário, who left the socialist government in the most recent reshuffle to run for this position.
They remain ahead of the CCDRs already led by Isabel Damasceno, in the Center, and Teresa Almeida, in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley (LVT).
Isabel Damasceno, former mayor of Leiria, a social democrat, has been the president of the CCDR center since January this year, and the architect Teresa Almeida has directed the CCDR-LVT since mid-2019, appointed by the PS.
In the case of the election of one of the vice presidents, Beraldino Pinto, former mayor of Macedo de Cavaleiros (PSD), was elected for the North; the architect José Pacheco for the Algarve; the former mayor Aníbal Reis Costa (PS) for Alentejo; geographer Jorge Marques de Brito, current executive secretary of the Intermunicipal Community of the Coimbra Region, for the Center; and Joaquim Sardinha, mayor of Mafra (PSD), for LVT. They were all unique candidates.
In a note, the Government stated that the elections were “normal”, registering a participation rate of 85.4% until 11:30 pm, when 19 polling stations had not yet been counted.
The Executive presented the indirect elections for a college of mayors for the presidencies and for a vice president for each of the CCDR in an attempt to “reinforce local governance and democratic legitimacy at the regional level” and take a further step in the process . decentralization.
On the social network Twitter, Prime Minister António Costa greeted the elected officials, recalling that, for the first time, they were not appointed by the Government, but elected by the mayors of the regions.
However, despite being formally an election, the candidates resulted from an agreement between the government and PSD leader Rui Rio, in a system that sparked protests in other parties.
Bloco and PCP requested in parliament, at the end of the last legislature, the cessation of the government decree, considering that it questions and postpones the regionalization process.
These termination requests were not approved just because PS and PSD joined in rejecting the proposals.
The PSD had also presented its own legislative initiative, in which it suggested changes that were welcomed by the Socialists.
BE, CDS-PP and the Liberal Initiative (IL) accused the PS and PSD in parliament of using the CCDR as “extensions of party interests” with the new indirect election model.
On Tuesday, election day, the PCP reiterated that the process of indirect election of the presidents of the CCDR is a “hoax”, which aims to prevent effective decentralization and the creation of administrative regions as a factor for regional development.
Five BE districts (Bragança, Castelo Branco, Guarda, Vila Real and Viseu) considered that the elections “have very little democracy, with PS and PSD sharing positions among themselves.”
The independent movement of the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, called for a boycott of mayors in the elections, considering them “a farce that, under the protection of an election, covers an election.”
Several local representatives announced boycotts, such as the deputies in the municipalities of Lisbon and Felgueiras elected by Livre, or who would vote blank as a form of protest, such as the BE elected in Lisbon.
The president of Juventud Popular (JP), who represents the young people of the CDS-PP, urged the deputies of that structure to boycott what he considered “a democratic farce.”
The CCDRs are decentralized services of the Central Administration, endowed with administrative and financial autonomy, in charge of implementing measures for the development of the respective regions, such as the management of community funds.
More than 10,000 mayors of the executives and municipal assemblies of each chamber were summoned to elect, for the first time, through regional electoral colleges, the five presidents of the CCDR, who until now were appointed by the Government.
The presidents of the Chambers also elected one of the two vice-presidents of these structures.
Those elected have a four-year term, although this first time, exceptionally, it is five.
Like mayors, the elected officials of the CCDR are also subject to a limitation of three consecutive terms.
Their mandates may be revoked by reasoned decision of the Government, if they commit a “serious violation of the management principles established in the applicable legal and regulatory diplomas.”
