Isaura Maria Elias Crisóstomo Bernardino Morais (born 19 June 1966) is a Portuguese politician. She is a member of the centre-right

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD), Morais was elected to the Assembly of the Republic in 2019 as a representative of the Santarém constituency and re-elected in January 2022 and March 2024. She is domestic violence survivor.

Early life and education

Isaura Maria Elias Crisóstomo Bernardino Morais was born on 19 June 1966 in

Rio Maior Rio Maior () is a municipality in the Santarém District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 21,192, in an area of 272.76 km². The present mayor is Isaura Morais of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the first woman to be elected mayor ...

in Portugal. Her parents were farmers. She graduated in human resources management.

Career

Morais was married to António José Bernardino Morais, an engineer, who died of leukemia in 1999. They had one daughter. After his death, she went to night school to do post-graduate studies in marketing management and began her professional life in the field of graphic arts. Her husband had been a PSD councillor for the municipality of

and in 2001 she also decided to join the party and was elected president of the Rio Maior parish council. In 2009, she was elected president of the Rio Maior municipality with 49.21% of the votes, the first defeat for the

Portuguese Socialist Party The Portuguese Socialist Party () was a Portuguese political party. History The party was founded in 1875. During its initial phase, it was heavily influenced by Proudhonism and rejected revolutionary Marxism. In 1919 the leftwing of the party ...

in Rio Maior for 24 years. She held this post until 2019. In 2019 she was invited to head the PSD list for the Santarém constituency in the

national election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

. She accepted as, after three terms, it would not have been possible for her to stay on the municipal council, and was duly elected to the Assembly of the Republic. In Parliament, she chaired the parliamentary committee on Public Administration, Administrative Modernization, Decentralization and Local Power. She also served as a vice-president of the National Political Commission of the PSD. In the 2022 election she was again first on the PSD list, with the party winning three of the nine seats available in the constituency. In 2024 she was re-elected as the third-choice candidate of the Democratic Alliance. After being chosen in March 2013 to be part of the Portuguese Sports Foundation's executive committee for the management of high-performance centres, to represent municipalities with such centres, in December of the same year Morais was appointed to be a member of the National Sports Council (''Conselho Nacional do Desporto''), joining famous Portuguese sports people such as the Olympic marathon winners,

Carlos Lopes Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes (, born 18 February 1947) is a Portuguese former long-distance runner and world-record holder in the marathon. He won the Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon, marathon at the 1984 Summer Olym ...

and

Rosa Mota Rosa Maria Correia dos Santos Mota, GCIH, GCM (; born 29 June 1958) is a Portuguese former marathon runner, one of her country's foremost athletes, being the first sportswoman from Portugal to win Olympic gold. Mota was the first woman to win ...

, and the racing driver, Pedro Couceiro. Her appointment was seen as a recognition of her contribution to the achievements of Rio Maior in promoting sports and supporting national sporting teams.

Personal life

In 2010 Morais filed a complaint to the police regarding abuse she received at the hands of her partner. Her decision to go to the police after enduring abuse for some time was widely applauded.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morais, Isaura 1966 births Living people Members of the 14th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 15th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) People from Rio Maior Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)