By: CHRIS GRAEME
AS PREDICTED by the polls, PS candidate and former minister of the interior António Costa won Lisbon Câmara’s elections on Sunday night.
Garnering 30 per cent of the total vote, the result was a far cry from the desired absolute majority that both the government and party had wanted.
Instead, the municipal elections were largely snubbed by the electorate, with a 62.61 per cent abstention rate throughout the municipality.
Out of a total of 524,248 registered votes in the city for all twelve candidates, Costa bagged 196,041 votes.
Scandal
Surprisingly, considering he headed what has been alleged to be one of the most corrupt and scandal ridden Câmara regimes in recent years, António Carmona Rodrigues succeeded in carrying away 16.7 per cent of the votes.
However, the night was a clear disaster for the opposition PSD and its official candidate Fernando Negrão who only picked up 15.7 per cent of the votes.
Independent Helena Roseta surprised all the political experts by taking home 10.2 per cent, while PCP candidate Ruben de Carvalho got 9.53 per cent, Bloco Esquerda candidate José Sá Fernandes 6.81 per cent, and the CDS candidate Telmo Correia 3.7 per cent.
The PS party was cock-o-hoop with the result, which means that it controls both the government and the country’s most important municipal seat and political power base, a fact shown by the appearance of the Prime Minister José Sócrates at the side of Costa both at the podium in the Hotel Altis and on a campaign lorry among the party faithful outside the hotel.
In total the PS party candidate won in all 53 Lisbon parishes or freguesias in a night so bad for Marques Mendes that, given the importance of Lisbon as a political weather vane, it could call into question the PSD leader’s future at the helm of the party.
Knowing that he now has to form a coalition government for Lisbon, António Costa said: “All those council members who come to serve Lisbon for the good of the city will be welcomed. We will carry out our electoral programme with everyone in question.”
Among the policies that the new President is to push forward are zero tolerance for pavement parking, strict penalties for double parking and a super clean-up operation for the city.
Tough measures
António Costa is also to ask for a 350 million euros bank loan to pay off Câmara creditors, and establish a financial re-floatation package of measures with its internal administration. Other tough measures proposed include reducing unnecessary expenses, slashing staff, and cutting back on non-essential goods and services.
“In order to put the Câmara’s finances on a healthy footing and pay its debts, we will set up a general emergency cleaning programme,” he said.
“We will also unblock public works that have become paralysed through lack of funding,” he promised.
The Prime Minister José Sócrates said atop the campaign lorry that Costa was, “one of the most capable, competent and talented Portuguese politicians (he) had ever known.”
However, the old saying ‘a week in politics is a long time’ was never more true on Sunday since António Costa has only a two year mandate to get the debt-ridden Câmara back on it s feet.
In that, Costa promised to immediately pay off 8.8 million euros worth of debt and inject 6.8 million euros to complete 18 projects in the city that have come to a standstill through lack of funds.
According to the Câmara’s own figures, it has a massive accumulated debt of 584.5 million euros and owes 118 million euros to suppliers and service providers.
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