1995 Portuguese legislative election
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230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 8,906,608 5.3% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 5,904,854 (66.3%) 1.5 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by district or autonomous region. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of the series: |
Politics and government of Portugal |
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Portugal |
The Portuguese legislative election of 1995 took place on 1 October. The Socialist Party defeated the Social Democratic Party under the lead of António Guterres, elected three years before, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs.
The Social Democratic party, under the lead of Fernando Nogueira, was weakened by the end of the 10-year cycle of governments led by Cavaco Silva. The two minor parties, the People's Party and the Democratic Unity Coalition achieved only 15 MPs each, a thing that marked the growing bi-polarization of the Portuguese political map. Although turnout, in percentage point, was lower than the previous election in 1991, almost 6 million voters cast a ballot on election day, the highest figure since 1980.
Voter turnout stood at 66.3%, the lowest until then.
Electoral system
The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.[5]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[6] The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.[7]
Parties
The major parties involved were listed with their leaders:
- Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Carlos Carvalhas
- Socialist Party (PS), António Guterres
- Social Democratic Party (PSD), Fernando Nogueira
- People's Party (CDS–PP), Manuel Monteiro
António Guterres, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the first time, becoming the first socialist Prime Minister in 10 years.
Campaign period
Party slogans
Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
---|---|---|---|---|
bgcolor="Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color"| | PSD | « Mais e melhor para Portugal » | "More and better for Portugal" | [8] |
width="1" bgcolor="Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color"| | PS | « A nova maioria » | "The new majority." | [9] |
bgcolor="Template:Unitary Democratic Coalition/meta/color"| | CDU | « Vamos dar a volta a isto » | "Let's turn this around" | [10] |
bgcolor="Template:CDS – People's Party/meta/color"| | CDS–PP | « Vamos dar lugar a Portugal » | "Let's make way for Portugal" | [11] |
Candidates' debates
The 1995 debates, between PSD leader Fernando Nogueira and PS leader António Guterres, were the first general election debates since the 1985 elections.
1995 Portuguese legislative election debates | ||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Organisers | Moderator(s) | P Present A Absent invitee N Non-inviteee | |||||||||||||||||
PSD Nogueira |
PS Guterres |
Refs | ||||||||||||||||||
style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color;"| | |||||||||||||||||||
6 Sep | RTP1 | José Eduardo Moniz Maria Elisa Domingues |
P | P | [12] | |||||||||||||||
13 Sep | SIC | Miguel Sousa Tavares Margarida Marante |
P | P | [12] |
Opinion Polling
The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed are currently represented in parliament. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1991 and 1995 for reference.
Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.
Poll conducted after legal ban on opinion polls
Date Released | Polling Firm | PSD | PS | CDU | CDS-PP | Others | Lead | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct 1995 | Leg. Election | 34.1 88 seats |
43.8 112 seats |
8.6 15 seats |
9.1 15 seats |
4.4 0 seats |
9.7 | ||
1 Oct | RTP/Euroteste | 33.4 | 40.3 | 12.4 | 9.9 | 4.0 | 6.9 | ||
1 Oct | SIC/Metris | 34.5 | 42.2 | 9.0 | 9.2 | 5.1 | 7.7 | ||
1 Oct | TVI/Universidade Católica | 35.5 | 41.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | ||
Exit polls | |||||||||
29 Sep | Norma | 40.3 | 35.2 | 9.7 | 9.3 | 5.5 | 5.1 | ||
23 Sep | Metris | 32.0 | 42.0 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | ||
23 Sep | Euroteste | 35.0 | 39.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 7.0 | 4.0 | ||
23 Sep | Euroexpansão | 32.7 | 44.5 | 11.5 | 6.9 | 4.4 | 11.8 | ||
23 Sep | Universidade Católica | 35.0 | 40.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 | ||
22 Sep | IPSOS | 35.0 | 41.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | ||
21 Sep | Marktest | 33.0 | 42.0 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 6.0 | 9.0 | ||
16 Sep | Compta | 39.0 | 40.0 | 12.0 | 8.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
1995 | |||||||||
6 Oct 1991 | Leg. Election | 50.6 135 seats |
29.1 72 seats |
8.8 17 seats |
4.4 5 seats |
7.1 1 seats |
21.5 |
National summary of votes and seats
style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF66FF;" data-sort-value="Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF9900;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0093DD;" data-sort-value="CDS – People's Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF0000;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unity Coalition" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #CC0000;" data-sort-value="Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: red;" data-sort-value="Revolutionary Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E2062C;" data-sort-value="People's Democratic Union (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #000080;" data-sort-value="National Solidarity Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: yellow;" data-sort-value="Party of the People" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #013220;" data-sort-value="Earth Party" | Template:Party name with colour (2) style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: red;" data-sort-value="Workers Party of Socialist Unity" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0000FF;" data-sort-value="Democratic Party of the Atlantic" |Parties | Votes | % | ± | MPs | MPs %/ votes % | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1991 | 1995 | ± | % | ± | ||||||
Socialist | 2,583,755 | 43.76 | 14.7 | 72 | 112 | 40 | 48.70 | 17.4 | 1.11 | |
Social Democratic | 2,014,589 | 34.12 | 16.5 | 135 | 88 | 47 | 38.26 | 20.4 | 1.12 | |
People's[A] | 534,470 | 9.05 | 4.7 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 6.52 | 4.3 | 0.72 | |
Democratic Unity Coalition[B] | 506,157 | 8.57 | 0.2 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 6.52 | 0.9 | 0.76 | |
Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat | 41,137 | 0.70 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Revolutionary Socialist | 37,638 | 0.64 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
People's Democratic Union | 33,876 | 0.57 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
National Solidarity | 12,613 | 0.21 | 1.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.4 | 0.0 | |
Party of the People | 8,279 | 0.14 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | |
Earth | 8,235 | 0.14 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | |
5,932 | 0.10 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | ||
Unity Movement for Workers | 2,544 | 0.04 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | |
Democratic Party of the Atlantic | 2,536 | 0.04 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Total valid | 5,791,761 | 98.08 | 0.0 | 230 | 230 | 0 | 100.00 | 0.0 | — | |
Blank ballots | 45,793 | 0.78 | 0.0 | |||||||
Invalid ballots | 67,300 | 1.14 | 0.0 | |||||||
Total (turnout 66.30%) | 5,904,854 | 100.00 | 1.5 | |||||||
A In 1993, the name "People's Party" was added to the party's name. B Portuguese Communist Party (13 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[13] | ||||||||||
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
Distribution by constituency
Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PS | PSD | CDS–PP | CDU | ||||||
Azores | 37.6 | 2 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|47.8 | 3 | 9.4 | - | 1.8 | - | 5 |
Aveiro | 40.2 | 6 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|41.2 | 6 | 12.6 | 2 | 2.7 | - | 14 |
Beja | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|45.8 | 2 | 15.7 | 1 | 3.6 | - | 29.2 | 1 | 4 |
Braga | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|42.9 | 8 | 38.2 | 7 | 10.7 | 1 | 4.5 | - | 16 |
Bragança | 40.3 | 2 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|44.8 | 2 | 9.4 | - | 1.9 | - | 4 |
Castelo Branco | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|53.2 | 3 | 32.1 | 2 | 7.2 | - | 5.3 | - | 5 |
Coimbra | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|49.1 | 6 | 34.5 | 4 | 7.1 | - | 5.1 | - | 10 |
Évora | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|42.6 | 2 | 20.2 | 1 | 5.2 | - | 26.9 | 1 | 4 |
Faro | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|49.6 | 5 | 29.2 | 3 | 8.3 | - | 7.8 | - | 8 |
Guarda | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|43.7 | 2 | 39.9 | 2 | 9.9 | - | 2.3 | - | 4 |
Leiria | 36.7 | 4 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|43.3 | 5 | 11.4 | 1 | 4.5 | - | 10 |
Lisbon | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|44.3 | 24 | 29.0 | 15 | 9.4 | 5 | 12.0 | 6 | 50 |
Madeira | 32.0 | 2 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|46.1 | 3 | 12.9 | - | 1.3 | - | 5 |
Portalegre | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|50.5 | 2 | 23.4 | 1 | 6.3 | - | 14.0 | - | 3 |
Porto | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|46.7 | 18 | 36.4 | 14 | 7.8 | 3 | 6.0 | 2 | 37 |
Santarém | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|45.8 | 5 | 31.0 | 3 | 8.7 | 1 | 9.5 | 1 | 10 |
Setúbal | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|44.9 | 9 | 18.4 | 3 | 7.2 | 1 | 23.8 | 4 | 17 |
Viana do Castelo | 38.8 | 3 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|42.1 | 3 | 11.3 | - | 4.6 | - | 6 |
Vila Real | 40.0 | 2 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|46.0 | 3 | 7.8 | - | 1.9 | - | 5 |
Viseu | 38.4 | 4 | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|44.3 | 4 | 11.5 | 1 | 1.8 | - | 9 |
Europe | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|35.1 | 1 | 33.8 | 1 | 4.4 | - | 6.4 | - | 2 |
Rest of the World | 12.8 | - | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|69.3 | 2 | 3.8 | - | 1.2 | - | 2 |
Total | style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|43.8 | 112 | 34.1 | 88 | 9.1 | 15 | 8.6 | 15 | 230 |
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
Maps
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Most voted political force by municipality.
References
- ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
- ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
- ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
- ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
- ^ "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
- ^ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
- ^ Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
- ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1995 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1995 – PS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "PCP – 1995". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1995 – CDS-PP". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ a b "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-02.