By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) -Portugal’s far-right Chega party fell back to earth in municipal elections, with a far worse result than it had anticipated after a surge in May that made it the country’s official opposition.

The party won three out of 308 elected mayorships in Sunday’s election, despite having predicted it could win 30. Its vote share fell to 12%, a far cry from its nearly 23% in the parliamentary election five months ago.

The ruling centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) won the largest share of mayors’ races with 136 including those in the largest cities Lisbon and Porto, improving from 114 four years ago. Its centre-left Socialist rivals won 128.

Chega’s result still gave it the third most votes of any party, but it emerged with fewer mayorships than indep

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