The 47 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira will be contested in a month's time, on 26 May, in early elections prompted by the resignation of the President of the Regional Government, who left the executive in management.

Here are some key points about the suffrage:

The political crisis

After the loss of an absolute majority in 2019 led the PSD into a post-election coalition with the CDS in the Madeira regional elections, in September 2023 the two parties ran together.

They won, but fell one seat short of an absolute majority, which led the president of the executive, Miguel Albuquerque, to reach a parliamentary agreement with the sole PAN deputy, Mónica Freitas.

Even before the first Budget of the term was voted on, in January the Polícia Judiciária carried out around a hundred searches in Madeira, the Azores and various locations on the mainland in an investigation involving suspicions of active and passive corruption, economic participation in business, prevarication, undue receipt or offer of advantage, abuse of power and influence peddling.

Miguel Albuquerque was named a defendant and initially refused to resign, but five days later, with the PAN threatening to withdraw its parliamentary support if he remained in office, he ended up doing so, which left the PSD/CDS executive in management.

The operation led to the arrest of the Mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado, the leader of the AFA group, Avelino Farinha, and the executive director of the Socicorreia group, Custódio Correia, who is also a partner of Farinha in several companies. They were released after 21 days, with the investigating judge considering that there was "no evidence" of corruption.

According to court documents, among the suspicions of the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) are an alleged "scheme to favour real estate interests and businesses" in the context of the construction of the Praia Formosa real estate project and an alleged favouritism in the choice of the winning company in the public tenders for the organisation of a jazz festival in Funchal, in 2022 and 2023.

According to the MP, there is a "privileged relationship, characterised by great closeness and informality" between Miguel Albuquerque, Pedro Calado and Avelino Farinha. It is also mentioned that there have been "interferences" by Miguel Albuquerque in matters of the municipal sphere, as well as positions taken by Pedro Calado on issues of a regional nature.

After hearing the parties and the Council of State on the political crisis in the archipelago, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, decided in March to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and call new elections.

The election deadlines

The regional elections are scheduled for 26 May (with the polls open between 08:00 and 19:00), with the campaign running between 12 and 24 May.

The candidacies were submitted by 15 April and, on the 22nd, the president of the Madeira Judicial District issued the order to admit all those that were presented, after the irregularities detected had been corrected.

Due to the possibility of complaints, the publication of the lists definitively admitted by the Funchal Local Civil Court may be made up to 9 May (if any candidate has to be replaced due to death or withdrawal, for example, the publication must be repeated on the 10th).

According to the calendar available on the website of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), the electoral registration in the region has been suspended since 28 March and until the day of the elections. The electoral registers cannot be changed from 11 May onwards, inclusive.

People hospitalised due to illness who are unable to go to the polls, displaced university students or prisoners may apply for early voting in the national territory until 6 May. Detainees and patients will vote between 13 and 16 May, and students on 17 May.

The general vote counting assembly is scheduled for 09:00 on 28 May.

How the deputies are elected

The regional parliament has 47 seats, elected by a single electoral constituency, which brings together the votes from the two islands of the archipelago -- Madeira and Porto Santo.

According to the law, the representative of the Republic, Ireneu Barreto, invites a political force to form the Regional Government after hearing the political parties represented in the new parliament, which can only happen after the publication of the electoral results in the Diário da República.

The candidacies

The Madeira Judicial Court validated the 14 candidacies submitted, relating to 13 isolated parties and one coalition.

According to the order of the ballot paper, which has already been drawn, the following will compete: the Alternativa Democrática Nacional (ADN), the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), the Partido Socialista (PS), the Livre (L), the Iniciativa Liberal (IL), the Reagir, Incluir, Reciclar (RIR), the CDU -- Coligação Democrática Unitária (PCP/PEV), the Chega (CH), the CDS -- Partido Popular (CDS-PP), the Partido da Terra (MPT), the Partido Social-Democrata (PPD/PSD), the Pessoas-Animais-Natureza (PAN), the Partido Trabalhista Português (PTP) and the Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP).

In relation to the 2023 regional elections, the only difference in terms of competing parties is the fact that the PSD and CDS-PP are running on separate lists, when they previously ran together in a coalition.

In the term that has now ended, the Legislative Assembly had 23 deputies from the PSD/CDS-PP coalition, 11 from the PS, five from the JPP and four from the Chega, while the CDU, IL, PAN and BE were represented with one seat each.

The campaign accounts

The candidacies plan to spend a total of 949,678 euros on the campaign, including communication, rallies, posters, gifts and other expenses, according to the budgets submitted to the Entity for Accounts and Political Financing (ECFP).

The PSD leads the list of expenses, with 340 thousand euros, followed by the PS (150 thousand), the CDS-PP (100 thousand), the JPP (96.100), the CDU (80 thousand), the IL (60 thousand), the BE (42.720), the PAN (30.358), the Chega (25.000), the Livre and the ADN (10.000 euros each), the PTP (5.000) and the RIR (500).

The MPT does not estimate spending any amount, as was the case in the 2019 and 2023 elections.

Early elections

These will be the third early regional elections in Madeira.

The 2007 elections were the first early elections (the legislature ended in 2008) because the then President of the Regional Government, Alberto João Jardim, resigned in protest against the Regional Finance Law and, at the same time, ensured his re-candidacy, winning again with an absolute majority, a scenario that was repeated in 2011.

In January 2015, Jardim resigned again as President of the Regional Government, following the election of the new leader of the PSD/Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, in the second round of internal elections held in December 2014.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira has had only three elected Presidents of the Regional Government since the revolution of 25 April 1974, the first being Jaime Ornelas Camacho (1976-1978), replaced in the middle of the term by Alberto João Jardim.

Leia Também: PSD venceu 11 das 13 legislativas na Madeira com maioria absoluta (Portuguese version)