Elections in Portugal

Portugal
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal
Constitution Constitution
President President (List) Aníbal Cavaco Silva Council of State
Government Prime Minister (List) Pedro Passos Coelho Cabinet
Legislative Assembly of the Republic Assunção Esteves
Judiciary Supreme Court of Justice Constitutional Court
Elections Presidential (2011) European (2009) Parliamentary (2011) Local (2009) Political Parties Politicians
Divisions Subdivisions Districts Autonomous regions Municipalities Parishes
Foreign policy EU Politics Foreign relations
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

Elections in Portugal gives information on election and election results in Portugal.

Only the elections since the Carnation Revolution of 1974 are listed here. During the period encompassing the Constitutional Monarchy and the First Republic there were also elections, but only for a limited universe of voters. During the Estado Novo regime, from 1926 to 1974, the few elections held were not up to the democratic standards of their time and never resulted in power transfer.

Portugal elects on a national level the President and the national Parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. The President is elected for a five-year term by the people while the Parliament has 230 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, the districts. Also on a national level, Portugal elects 22 members of the European Parliament.

The Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira elect their own regional government for a four-year term, usually on the same day. The first regional elections were held in 1976.

On a local level, 308 Municipal Chambers and Municipal Assemblies and more than 4000 Parish Assemblies are elected for a four-year term in separate elections that usually occur on the same day.

Latest elections

2011 Parliamentary election

Main article: Portuguese legislative election, 2011

 Summary of the 5 June 2011 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±pp swing	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					2009	2011	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	2,159,181	38.66	9.6	81	108	27	46.96	11.7	1.21
	Socialist	1,566,347	28.05	8.5	97	74	23	32.17	10.0	1.15
	People's Party	653,888	11.71	1.3	21	24	3	10.43	1.3	0.89
	Democratic Unity Coalition	441,147	7.90	0.0	15	16	1	6.96	0.4	0.88
	Left Bloc	288,923	5.17	4.6	16	8	8	3.48	3.5	0.67
	PCTP/MRPP	62,610	1.12	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Party for Animals and Nature	57,995	1.04	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Earth Party	22,705	0.41	0.3	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Hope for Portugal Movement	21,942	0.39	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	National Renovator Party	17,548	0.31	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Labour Party	16,895	0.30	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist Party	14,687	0.26	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	New Democracy	11,806	0.21	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portugal pro life	8,209	0.15	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	4,572	0.08	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	4,569	0.08	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Humanist Party	3,588	0.06	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
Total valid		5,357,037	95.92	1.0	230	230	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		148,618	2.66	0.9
Invalid ballots		79,399	1.42	0.1
Total (turnout 58.03%)		5,585,054	100.00	1.7
A Portuguese Communist Party (14 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

2011 Presidential election

Main article: Portuguese presidential election, 2011

 Summary of the 23 January 2011 Portuguese presidential election results

Candidates		Supporting parties	First round
			Votes	%
	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	Social Democratic Party, People's Party, Hope for Portugal Movement	2,231,956	52.95
	Manuel Alegre	Socialist Party, Left Bloc, Democratic Party of the Atlantic, PCTP/MRPP	831,838	19.74
	Fernando Nobre	Independent	593,021	14.07
	Francisco Lopes	Portuguese Communist Party, Ecologist Party "The Greens"	301,017	7.14
	José Manuel Coelho	New Democracy Party	189,918	4.51
	Defensor Moura	Independent	67,110	1.59
Total valid			4,214,860	100.00
Blank ballots			192,127	4.28
Invalid ballots			85,466	1.90
Total (turnout 46.52%)			4,492,453
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Election results 1975-2011

 Summary of Portuguese elections for the Assembly of the Republic, 1975-2011

Parties (listed by date of foundation)	1975*	1976	1979	1980	1983	1985	1987	1991	1995	1999	2002	2005	2009	2011
Portuguese Communist Party (PCP)	12.5	14.4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP)	4.1	-	-	-	-	-	0.6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Socialist Party (PS)	37.9	34.9	27.3	1.1	36.1	20.8	22.2	29.1	43.8	44.1	37.8	45.0	36.6	28.1
Social Democratic Party (PSD)	26.4	24.4	2.4	2.5	27.2	29.9	50.2	50.6	34.1	32.3	40.2	28.8	29.1	38.7
People´s Party (CDS–PP)	7.6	16.0	0.4	0.2	12.6	10.0	4.4	4.4	9.1	8.3	8.7	7.2	10.4	11.7
People's Democratic Union (UDP)	0.8	1.7	2.2	1.4	0.5	1.3	0.9	0.1	0.6	-	-	-	-	-
United People Alliance (APU)	-	-	18.8	16.8	18.1	15.5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Democratic Alliance (AD)	-	-	42.5	44.9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Republican and Socialist Front (FRS)	-	-	-	26.7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Democratic Renewal Party (PRD)	-	-	-	-	-	17.9	4.9	0.6	-	-	-	-	-	-
Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)	-	-	-	-	-	-	12.1	8.8	8.6	9.0	6.9	7.5	7.9	7.9
National Solidarity Party (PSN)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.7	0.2	0.2	-	-	-	-
Left Bloc (BE)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2.4	2.7	6.4	9.8	5.2
Other parties; Invalid votes	10.7	8.6	6.4	6.4	5.5	4.6	4.7	4.7	3.6	3.7	3.7	5.1	6.2	8.5
Turnout	91.7	83.5	82.9	83.9	77.8	74.2	71.6	67.8	66.3	61.1	61.5	64.3	59.7	58.0
*The 1975 election was for the Constituent Assembly.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

European Parliament elections

• European Parliament election, 1987
• European Parliament election, 1989
• European Parliament election, 1994
• European Parliament election, 1999
• European Parliament election, 2004
• European Parliament election, 2009

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Portuguese Legislative Elections

External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Parties and elections
• Election results
• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Portuguese General Elections since 1820