As with all good election campaigns, there has been enough smear to bring angry accusations to the fore, and bewilder a populous who are not exactly renown for their voting enthusiasm. Absenteeism was high, and although the pandemic can be said to be a contributory factor, the past has revealed that this is not really an anomaly.
So with the build up of the last two weeks, yesterday, the votes were cast, and as predicted Pedro Calado and his party ‘Funchal Semper à Frente’ won by a clear majority.
Basing his campaign on getting things done, Pedro Calado is known for being a driven man, who wants to turn Funchal into a vibrant energetic city, ensuring that the lives of all its inhabitants are improved.
One of the party’s innovative ideas is to convert abandoned properties into liveable low cost housing. These houses, will be loaned to the CMF by their owner(s), and the city council will do all the remodelling and technically use them as council houses. However, once the renovation debt has been paid off – by rents – the properties will be handed back to their owners. Technically this is a win win situation as abandoned house owners who may not be able to afford to do up the family home will have the work done for them, and the CMF will be able to use a wide variety of houses as affordable living for the city’s low income residents.
For those interested, here are the voting statistics – Funchal Only
According to the final results, Pedro Calado’s party received 26, 827 vote against 22,704 votes for the team led by Miguel Silva Gouveia. As a percentage, 46.95% of the votes were in favour of the Funchal Sempre à Frente coalition and 39.74% in the Confiança coalition.
In Funchal, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) were third with 2.87% of the votes (1,642). They were followed by Chega, with 2.59% (1,481) and Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) with 1.7 (972 votes).
Other parties –
The Liberal Initiative Party – 1.26% (721 votes).
The Portuguese Labour Party (PTP) – 1.12% (638 votes).
Livre – 0.46% (260 votes).
Portuguese Monarchist Party (PPM) – 0.43% , (248 votes). Based on their advertising campaign, which would have any self respecting monarch tearing their hair out in horror, I’d say they were lucky to get that!
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
