Azores regional election, 2008

Azores regional election, 2008

← 2000 10 October 2008 2012 →
52 seats to the Legislative Assembly of Azores 27 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	90,221 (46.76%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Carlos César Carlos Costa Neves Artur Lima Party PS PSD CDS–PP Leader since 2008 Leader's seat São Miguel São Miguel Terceira Last election 24 seats, 45.8% 24 seats, 41.0% Seats before 2 Seats won 30 18 5 Seat change 6 6 1 Popular vote 44,940 27,254 7,857 Percentage 49.92% 30.27% 8.70% Swing 3.4% 8.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Zuraida Soares Aníbal Pires Paulo Estêvão Party BE CDU People's Monarchist Party Leader since 2008 2005 2008 Leader's seat São Miguel São Miguel Corvo Last election 0.97% 2.97 0 Seats before 0 1 0 Seats won 2 1 1 Seat change 2 0 1 Popular vote 2,972 2,829 423 Percentage 3.14% 3.14% 0.47%
President before election Carlos Cesar PS Elected President Carlos Cesar PS

Carlos Cesar
PS

Carlos Cesar
PS

The Azores Regional Election (2008) (Portuguese: Eleições Regionais dos Açores, 2008) was an election held on 10 October 2008 for the legislative assembly and government of the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. in which the Socialist party, under the leadership of Carlos César won a third mandate with 46.7% of the turnout, while their rivals, under the Social Democratic Party leader Carlos Costa Neves, received 30.27% of the vote: the result would result Neves' resignation in the following days.

The official electoral race occurred from 5 October to 17 October 2008, marked by a 53.34% abstention rate of the 192,943 registered voters (102,735 did not cast a vote); only 90,030 people voted in this election.

Following their absence from the regional assembly between 2004-2008, the Communist Party (PCP), under their leader Aníbal C. Pires returned to campaign in a new coalition, with the Ecologist Party "The Greens". Emboldened by minor successes in the Autonomous Region of Madeira during the 2007 election, the coalition was seen as new way of reviving the party. In his speech to the national PCP assembly in 2007 he pushed for an intense campaign to support maritime natural resources exploitation and workers' rights, especially in the "disequal social and economic" centre of São Miguel.

The leader of the PSD, Carlos Costa Neves, promised to "move the attitude" in the party, with the objective of recuperating Azorean confidence in the party, after their defeat in the 2000 elections. Following his election to the party, Neves had defended a reorganization of the party, the moblization and dialogo with militants, in addition to the development of innovative proposals, and noted his direct election as an affirmation of the new party politics. He warned that politics was in danger of permanent stagnation, where the discourse "in the Azores was created within the pink walls of the Palace of Santana", that the PSD was needed "a combative opposition and alternative politics".

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