Saturnino Sousa, PSD candidate in Santa Cruz

Independent Saturnino Sousa, known for having been general director and administrator of the SAD of Clube Desportivo Nacional, will be the PSD/Madeira candidate for the presidency of the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz in the next local elections.

The choice of the head of the list was announced by the president of the PSD/Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, for the only municipality in Madeira that is governed by Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP).

Without party affiliation, Saturnino Sousa joined Jorge Batista's (PSD) local government list in 2013, which was defeated by the JPP, which has governed Santa Cruz for 12 years.

The candidate was a former football player at Nacional, where he also served as communications director.

He left his management role at Nacional in August 2023, at a club where he worked for around 15 years and is the current president of Sporting Clube Santacruzense and school delegate in this municipality.

Saturnino Sousa is a primary school teacher, has a degree in school administration and was also a sports journalist.

The process of choosing the PSD/Madeira candidates for the local elections is complete, as the names of the other 10 candidates were approved at a meeting of the national political committee.

The PSD's top candidate in the municipality of Santa Cruz, adjacent to the east of Funchal, was the only one missing, after the party announced the name of Savino Correia, who presided over that municipality between 1998 and 2005, but who ended up abandoning the project “for personal reasons”.

In the last local elections, on September 26, 2021, the PSD/CDS-PP coalition won in three of Madeira's 11 municipalities: Funchal, São Vicente and Porto Santo.

The PSD, alone, won in Câmara de Lobos and Calheta, while the CDS-PP won in Santana.

The PS won the majority in Porto Moniz, Machico and Ponta do Sol, while the JPP maintained the presidency in Santa Cruz.

In Ribeira Brava, the Ribeira Brava Primeiro movement won, with a list that received the support of social democrats and centrists.

Local elections are expected to take place between September and October.

AMB // MCL

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