The starting point of this text are two recent studies published by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. One, by João Cancela and José Santana Pereira, was dedicated to “Understanding electoral abstention in Portugal” and one of the main facts to remember is that local elections stand out from legislative, presidential and European elections because they are the only ones in which the voter participation rate has never been less than 50%.
Another, more extensive study, the Local Power Barometer (Filipe Teles and Nuno F. da Cruz), evaluates what the Portuguese think about mayors and the capacity/legitimacy/effectiveness of proximity policies, etc., based on 1,070 interviews with residents of mainland Portugal, aged 18 or over – with 69.3% of respondents saying they would vote for local authorities “for sure”.
“What really counts when voting?” was one of the questions asked by the researchers and, here, the majority of Portuguese people say the performance of the chamber and who the candidate is are the determining factors in deciding their voting direction, leaving party, ideological preferences and, even, the ideas expressed in the electoral programs to the background. Taking these conclusions together, it is easy to see the relevance of local power in the daily lives of voters, as it is the one that can most quickly show effective results in solving the population’s problems. So governance is done well…
However, this is where the equation often fails and disappoints voters. In the case of 308 municipal councils and 3092 parishes, there are plenty of positions to serve clientele of party apparatus, ‘paratroopers’ who have nothing to do with the land they want to govern or even those who jump from municipality to municipality to perpetuate themselves in power. And that hurts voter confidence.
Since local elections are such a specific election, would it also make sense for candidates to undergo different scrutiny? For example: having lived in the municipality for at least five years, enough time to have knowledge about the territories based on experience on the ground and not on reports from third parties.
Another suggestion: create regional technical offices in Anafre with the mission of collecting reliable data that would help mayors make decisions and that would also, at each electoral cycle, conduct interviews with candidates to assess their knowledge of the municipality or parish they want to lead. The idea would not be to approve the candidate (this role would continue to be reserved for the party’s municipal and district structures), but rather to certify him – poorly compared, it would work like the blue flags attributed to beaches.
Another suggestion: increase the vote of those who have lived in the municipality the longest, with tables separated by length of residence to keep the vote secret (something that already happens, for example, in the elections of some clubs where the vote of older members is worth more). If I have lived in a parish for 30 years, shouldn’t my vote count more than that of someone who arrived there months ago? It is controversial, it would require extensive parliamentary commitments (to change electoral laws you need a two-thirds majority) and monitor the constitutionality of the proposed measures. But, I believe, it would do the country good. And it would reinforce citizens’ trust in their closest institutions.
Executive Editor of Diário de Notícias