1991 Portuguese presidential election

Portuguese presidential election, 1991

13 January 1991
Turnout	62.2% 15.8 pp
Candidate Mário Soares Basílio Horta Party PS CDS Popular vote 3,459,521 696,379 Percentage 70.4% 14.2%
President before election Soares PS Elected President Soares PS

The Portuguese presidential election of 1991 was held on 13 January.

The re-election of the hugely popular Mário Soares was never in doubt, specially after the then-ruling PSD, led by Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva announced its support. Therefore, the election held on 13 January 1991 was a landslide, and no second round was needed.

As the election of a left-wing candidate was assured, other left-wing parties, the Portuguese Communist Party and the People's Democratic Union, presented their own candidates. The communists presented Carlos Carvalhas, who had been Assistant General Secretary of the Party a year before (Álvaro Cunhal was the secretary-general). Carvalhas would later be elected secretary-general, in 1992.

On the right, as the Social Democratic Party supported Soares, the Democratic and Social Centre presented the only right-wing candidate, Basílio Horta.

Mário Soares achieved the majority of the votes in every district of the country, and 302 of the then 305 municipalities. His score was the biggest ever in a presidential election in Portugal.

Procedure

Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7500 and 15000 signatures and submit them to the Portuguese Constitutional Court.

According to the Portuguese Constitution, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates

• Mário Soares, Incumbent President since 1986 and eligible for a second term, supported by the Socialist Party, and tactically by the Social Democratic Party;
• Basílio Horta, Minister in previous governments, supported by the Democratic and Social Centre;
• Carlos Carvalhas, supported by the Portuguese Communist Party and Ecologist Party "The Greens";
• Carlos Manuel Marques, supported by the People's Democratic Union;

Results

 Summary of the 13 January 1991 Portuguese presidential election results

Candidates		Supporting parties	First round
			Votes	%
	Mário Soares	Socialist Party (and tactically by the Social Democratic Party)	3,459,521	70.35
	Basílio Horta	Democratic and Social Centre	696,379	14.16
	Carlos Carvalhas	Portuguese Communist Party, Ecologist Party "The Greens"	635,373	12.92
	Carlos Manuel Marques	People's Democratic Union	126,581	2.57
Total valid			4,917,854	100.00
Blank ballots			112,877	2.21
Invalid ballots			68,037	1.33
Total (turnout 62.16%)			5,098,768
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share 1st Round Mário Soares   70.35% Basílio Horta   14.16% Carlos Carvalhas   12.92% Carlos Manuel Marques   2.57% Blank/Invalid   3.54%

References

• "CNE Resultados". Comissão Nacional de Eleições. Retrieved 17 May 2005.
• "Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político". Archived from the original on 2006-08-18. Retrieved 17 May 2005. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

• Portuguese Electoral Commission
• NSD: European Election Database - Portugal publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2010

See also

• President of Portugal
• Portugal
• Politics of Portugal