2007_Madeiran_regional_election
A regional election was held in Madeira on 6 May 2007, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The election was a snap election, as it was original schedule to only happen in October 2008. The election was called after the President of the Regional Government, Alberto João Jardim, resigned after his government clashed with the Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates due to the new regional finance law approved by the Sócrates government.[1] Jardim defended that the new law was harmful for Madeira's interests. By this time, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) had been in power, nonstop, since 1976.
The election was a huge landslide for the PSD and Alberto João Jardim. He won one of the biggest landslides in Madeira electoral history, winning more than 64% of the votes and 70% of the members of the regional parliament.[2] The PSD won, once again, in all 11 municipalities of the region. The Socialists suffered a huge setback in these elections winning just 15% of the votes and 7 seats, although the number of total members was reduced to 47 due to a new electoral system.
The smaller parties, CDS, CDU and BE, also saw their shares decrease and CDU, led by the Portuguese Communist Party, was able to pull ahead of the People's Party (CDS-PP). The Left Bloc (BE) had, like CDU, minor losses and was able to hold on to their sole seat. But other smaller parties gained representation for the first time. The Earth Party (MPT) and the New Democracy Party (PND) gained, both, one seat and polled above 2%
Turnout in these elections increased very slightly compared with 3 years ago, with 60.8% of voters casting a ballot.