Portuguese legislative election, 1987

Portuguese legislative election, 1987

1985 ← July 19, 1987 → 1991

250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Vítor Constâncio Party Social Democratic Socialist Leader since 2 June 1985 1986 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 88 seats, 29.9% 57 seats, 20.8% Seats won 148 60 Seat change 60 3 Popular vote 2,850,784 1,262,506 Percentage 50.2% 22.2% Swing 20.3% 1.4%

Prime Minister before election Cavaco Silva Social Democratic Prime Minister-elect Cavaco Silva Social Democratic

Portugal

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on July 19. In the last election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had achieved a relative majority, thing that made its government very weak, managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic Social Center and the Democratic Renovator Party, and after the approval of a no confidence resolution from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renovator Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

The election was won by the Social Democratic Party, that with a growing popularity, won with a large majority, the biggest ever in the Portuguese parliamentary history. The left-wing Unitarian Democratic Coalition lost some of its MPs to the Socialist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party lost almost all of its influence, mainly due to its responsibility in the fall of the former government. The right-wing Democratic Social Center lost almost a half of the voting, due to the useful voting effect on the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
• Democratic Renovator Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• Democratic Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 19 July 1987 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	Seats
					1985	1987	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	2,850,784	50.22	20.3	88	148	60	59.20	24.0
	Socialist	1,262,506	22.24	1.4	57	60	3	24.00	1.2
	Democratic Unity Coalition	689,137	12.14	3.4	38	31	7	12.40	2.8
	Democratic Renovator	278,561	4.91	13.0	45	7	38	2.80	15.2
	Democratic and Social Centre	251,987	4.44	5.6	22	4	18	1.60	7.2
	People's Democratic Union	50,717	0.89	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	32,977	0.58	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	32,607	0.57	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
	Christian Democratic Party	31,667	0.56	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
	People's Monarchist Party	23,218	0.41	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
	PCTP/MRPP	20,800	0.37	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
	Communist Party (Reconstructed)	18,544	0.33	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	9,185	0.16	0.6	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
Total valid		5,552,690	97.82	0.3	250	250	0	100.00	0.0
Blank ballots		50,135	0.88	0.1
Invalid ballots		73,533	1.30	0.4
Total (turnout 71.57%)		5,676,358	100.00	2.6
A In 1985, as United People Alliance.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal