According to provisional official data from Sunday night’s electoral count, with all parishes tallied, São Pedro, the birthplace of Miguel Albuquerque (the incumbent President of the Regional Government since 2015 and a candidate again), was the first parish in the municipality of Funchal to close its results. The PSD increased its vote share compared to May last year, reaching 37.40%.
The second most voted political force was the JPP, with 22.28%, followed by the PS, which received 17.43%.
The PSD’s performance was even more notable in Santa Luzia, a parish in Funchal where Paulo Cafôfo (the regional leader of the socialists) was born, securing 41.75% of the votes.
The PS garnered 16.34% there, trailing behind the JPP’s 19.80%.
The PSD emerged victorious in 10 out of Madeira’s 11 municipalities, notably reclaiming Machico, which it had lost to the PS in the previous 2024 regional elections.
According to data from the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration, the only Madeiran municipality where the PSD was defeated was Santa Cruz, where the JPP remained the predominant political force.
The PSD, which won Sunday’s election with 43.43% of the total votes and secured 23 deputies, just missing an outright majority by one seat, achieved an absolute majority in five Madeiran municipalities: Calheta (58.77%), Ponta do Sol (54.66%), Ribeira Brava (53.07%), Porto Moniz (52.49%), and São Vicente (51.63%).
The PSD was the most voted, albeit without an absolute majority, in Câmara de Lobos (49.09%), Porto Santo (46.20%), Santana (44.37%), Funchal (40.91%), and Machico (40.12%).
Overall, the JPP secured 21.05% of the votes and 11 seats in the regional parliament, while the PS obtained 15.64% and eight seats in the Regional Legislative Assembly. Chega elected three deputies, while IL and CDS-PP acquired one each.
In both 2019 and 2023, the Social Democrats needed to form parliamentary agreements (initially with CDS-PP and later with PAN) to reach the necessary number of deputies for an absolute majority (24).
After the early elections in 2024, the PSD (with 19 deputies) formed a minority government, as the agreement with CDS (two elected) fell short of an absolute majority. The PS and JPP, with a combined total of 20 deputies, subsequently proposed a government solution.
These early Madeiran elections, the third in approximately a year and a half, saw 14 candidacies competing for the 47 seats in the regional parliament from a single electoral district: CDU (PCP/PEV), PSD, Livre, JPP, Nova Direita, PAN, Força Madeira (PTP/MPT/RIR), PS, IL, PPM, BE, Chega, ADN, and CDS.
The vote occurred 10 months after the previous one, following the approval of a motion of no confidence presented by Chega—justified by judicial investigations involving members of the Regional Government, including President Miguel Albuquerque (PSD)—and the subsequent dissolution of the Regional Legislative Assembly by the President of the Republic.
