1991 Portuguese legislative election

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1991 Portuguese legislative election
← 1987 6 October 1991 1995 →
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Registered8,462,357 Increase6.7%
Turnout5,735,431 (67.8%)
Decrease3.8 pp
  First party Second party
 
Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Jorge Sampaio
Party PSD PS
Leader since 2 June 1985 15 January 1989
Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2]
Last election 148 seats, 50.2% 60 seats, 22.2%
Seats won 135 72
Seat change Decrease 13 Increase 12
Popular vote 2,902,351 1,670,758
Percentage 50.6% 29.1%
Swing Increase 0.4 pp Increase 6.9 pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Álvaro Cunhal Diogo Freitas do Amaral
Party PCP CDS
Alliance CDU
Leader since 30 September 1987 31 January 1988
Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon[3]
Last election 31 seats, 12.1% 4 seats, 4.4%
Seats won 17 5
Seat change Decrease 14 Increase 1
Popular vote 504,583 254,317
Percentage 8.8% 4.4%
Swing Decrease 3.3 pp Decrease 0.0 pp
Prime Minister before election

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
PSD

Elected Prime Minister

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
PSD

The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. There was a reduction of 20 seats compared with previous elections, due to the 1989 Constitutional revision.[4]

The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of Cavaco Silva, won a historic third term and won with an absolute majority for the second consecutive turn, achieving a higher share than in the previous election, losing, however, 13 MPs due to the reduction of the overall number from the original 250 to 230. Cavaco Silva became the first Prime Minister since Hintze Ribeiro, in 1904, to lead a party into three successive democratic election victories.

The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the future President of Portugal, increased its share by 7% and gained 12 MPs, but did not manage to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. Like four and six years earlier, and like 1979 and 1980, the PS failed to win a single district. In the first legislative election after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the communist dominated Democratic Unity Coalition lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting, but were able to hold on to the district of Beja by a slight margin over the PSD.

On the right, the CDS could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of tactical voting for the Social Democratic Party by right-wing voters, increasing its parliamentary group by only 1 MP. The National Solidarity Party, using a populist campaign, achieved for the first time an MP, in what would be the only presence of such party in the Parliament.

Voter turnout fell to 67.8%, and for the first time below 70% of the electorate.

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. The total number of MPs was reduced in 1989, during the Constitutional amendments, to 230 from the previous 250. 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]

For these elections, and compared with the 1987 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[8]

District Number of MPs
Lisbon 50 (-6)
Porto 37 (-2)
Setúbal 16 (-1)
Braga 16 (-1)
Aveiro 14 (-1)
Leiria 10 (-1)
Santarém 10 (-2)
Coimbra 10 (-1)
Viseu 9 (-1)
Faro 8 (-1)
Viana do Castelo 6
Vila Real 6
Madeira 5
Azores 5
Castelo Branco 5
Guarda 4 (-1)
Bragança 4
Évora 4
Beja 4 (-1)
Portalegre 3
Europe 2
Outside Europe 2

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 5th legislature (1987-1991) and that also partook in the election:

Name Ideology Political position Leader 1987 result Seats at
dissolution[9]
Votes (%) Seats
style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color;"| PPD/PSD Social Democratic Party
Partido Social Democrata 		Liberal conservatism
Classical liberalism 		Centre-right Aníbal Cavaco Silva 50.2%
148 / 250
148 / 250
style="background:Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color;"| PS Socialist Party
Partido Socialista 		Social democracy Centre-left Jorge Sampaio 22.2%
60 / 250
60 / 250
PCP Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português 		Communism
Marxism–Leninism 		Far-left Álvaro Cunhal 12.1%
[a]
29 / 250
29 / 250
style="background:Template:Ecologist Party "The Greens"/meta/color;"| PEV Ecologist Party "The Greens"
Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" 		Eco-socialism
Green politics 		Left-wing -
2 / 250
0 / 250
PRD Democratic Renewal Party
Partido Renovador Democrático 		Centrism
Third Way 		Centre Pedro Canavarro 4.9%
7 / 250
0 / 250
style="background:Template:CDS – People's Party/meta/color;"| CDS Democratic and Social Centre
Centro Democrático e Social 		Christian democracy
Conservatism 		Centre-right
to right-wing 		Diogo Freitas do Amaral 4.4%
4 / 250
4 / 250
style="background:Template:Independent/meta/color;"| Ind. Independent
Independente 		Democratic Renewal Party caucus dissolved in December 1990;
Ecologist Party "The Greens" caucus dissolved in December 1990;
9 / 250

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs
bgcolor="Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color"| PSD « No bom caminho » "On the right track" [10]
width="1" bgcolor="Template:Socialist Party (Portugal)/meta/color"| PS « Agora nós » "Now us." [11]
bgcolor="Template:Unitary Democratic Coalition/meta/color"| CDU « Para um Portugal melhor » "For a better Portugal" [12]
bgcolor="Template:CDS – People's Party/meta/color"| CDS « A verdade, sempre! » "The truth, always!" [13]

Candidates' debates

No debates between the main parties were held as the PSD leader and Prime Minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, refused to take part in any debate.[14]

Opinion polling

See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed were represented in parliament (1987-1991). Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1987 and 1991 for reference.

Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Date Released Polling Firm PSD PS CDU CDS Others Lead
6 Oct 1991 Leg. Election 50.6
135 seats 		29.1
72 seats 		8.8
17 seats 		4.4
5 seats 		7.1
1 seat 		21.5
6 Oct RTP1 - Universidade Católica 48.0–51.9 28.5–31.5 7.5–10.0 4.5–5.5
—
 19.5–20.4
6 Oct TSF/Expresso - Euroexpansão 45.8–50.2 29.8–33.9 6.8–9.1 3.7–5.5
—
 16.0–16.3
6 Oct Antena1 - Euroteste 47.0–50.0 31.0–34.0 7.5–10.0 4.0–5.0
—
 16.0
6 Oct Rádio Comercial - GEOIDEIA 49.0–52.0 29.0–31.0 7.0–9.0 3.0–4.0
—
 20.0–21.0
6 Oct Rádio Press 45.5 35.0 9.6 4.5
—
 10.5
Exit polls
28 Sep Euroteste 47.3 35.5 8.5 4.1 4.6 11.8
28 Sep Euroteste 46.0 37.0 9.7 3.9 3.4 9.0
28 Sep Euroexpansão 44.0 33.0 9.0 6.0 8.0 11.0
27 Sep Marktest 43.1 32.8 7.7 4.6 11.8 10.3
27 Sep Pluriteste 41.2 34.7 8.4 8.1 7.6 6.5
20 Sep Euroteste 45.6 35.5 10.0 4.4 4.5 10.1
20 Sep Marktest 41.9 31.9 7.3 4.4 14.5 10.0
16 Sep Pluriteste 39.2 26.6 6.2 6.0 22.0 12.6
16 Sep Euroteste 45.1 34.5 10.2 5.2 5.0 10.6
14 Sep Norma 45.0 37.5 11.2 3.5 2.8 7.5
28 Aug Euroexpansão/Marktest 35.3 36.8 8.7 4.9 14.3 1.5
4 Aug Euroteste/JN 47.5 37.8 12.3 8.2 — 7.7
19 Jul Norma 43.7 32.9 12.4 6.5 4.5 10.8
19 Jul Euroteste 45.4 36.6 10.8 4.0 3.2 8.8
1991
19 Jul 1987 Leg. Election 50.2
148 seats 		22.2
60 seats 		12.1
31 seats 		4.4
4 seats 		11.1
7 seats 		28.0

National summary of votes and seats

style="width: 2px; background-color: #FF9900;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #FF66FF;" data-sort-value="Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #FF0000;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unity Coalition" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #0093DD;" data-sort-value="CDS – People's Party" | style="width: 2px; background-color: red;" data-sort-value="Revolutionary Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #CC0000;" data-sort-value="Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #00B233;" data-sort-value="Democratic Renewal Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #2A5392;" data-sort-value="People's Monarchist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #0000FF;" data-sort-value="Democratic Party of the Atlantic" | style="width: 2px; background-color: darkred;" data-sort-value="Left Revolutionary Front (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; background-color: #E2062C;" data-sort-value="People's Democratic Union (Portugal)" |
e • d Summary of the 6 October 1991 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
1987 1991 ± % ±
Social Democratic 2,902,351 50.60 Increase0.4 148 135 Decrease13 58.70 Decrease0.5 1.16
Socialist 1,670,758 29.13 Increase6.9 60 72 Increase12 31.30 Increase7.3 1.07
Democratic Unity Coalition[A] 504,583 8.80 Decrease3.3 31 17 Decrease14 7.39 Decrease5.0 0.84
Democratic and Social Centre 254,317 4.43 Decrease0.0 4 5 Increase1 2.17 Increase0.6 0.49
National Solidarity 96,096 1.68 — — 1 — 0.44 — 0.39
Revolutionary Socialist 64,159 1.12 Increase0.5 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat 48,542 0.85 Increase0.5 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Democratic Renewal 35,077 0.61 Decrease4.3 7 0 Decrease7 0.00 Decrease2.8 0.0
People's Monarchist 25,216 0.44 Increase0.0 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic 10,842 0.19 — — 0 — 0.00 — 0.0
Left Revolutionary Front 6,661 0.12 — — 0 — 0.00 — 0.0
People's Democratic Union[B] 6,157 0.11 Decrease0.8 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Total valid 5,624,759 98.07 Increase0.3 250 230 Decrease20 100.00 Steady0.0 —
Blank ballots 47,652 0.83 Decrease0.1
Invalid ballots 63,020 1.10 Decrease0.2
Total 5,735,431 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 8,462,357 67.78 Decrease3.8
A Portuguese Communist Party (15 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[15]
B People's Democratic Union electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
Vote share
PSD
 
 50.60%
PS
 
 29.13%
CDU
 
 8.80%
CDS
 
 4.43%
PSN
 
 1.68%
PSR
 
 1.12%
PCTP/MRPP
 
 0.85%
PRD
 
 0.61%
Others
 
 0.86%
Blank/Invalid
 
 1.93%
Parliamentary seats
PSD
 
 58.70%
PS
 
 31.30%
CDU
 
 7.39%
CDS
 
 2.17%
PSN
 
 0.43%

Distribution by constituency

e • d Results of the 1991 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency
Constituency % S % S % S % S % S Total
S
PSD PS CDU CDS PSN
Azores style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|64.1 4 25.8 1 1.3 - 3.4 - 5
Aveiro style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|58.6 9 27.8 4 2.8 - 6.1 1 1.3 - 14
Beja 29.3 1 28.4 1 30.4 2 2.3 - 1.0 - 4
Braga style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|53.6 10 31.5 5 4.6 - 5.6 1 0.8 - 16
Bragança style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|57.9 3 25.7 1 2.1 - 8.2 - 1.5 - 4
Castelo Branco style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|51.8 3 32.4 2 4.6 - 3.9 - 2.3 - 5
Coimbra style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|49.9 6 34.4 4 5.0 - 3.5 - 1.7 - 10
EvoraÉvora style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|35.0 2 25.9 1 27.1 1 2.8 - 1.4 - 4
Faro style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|50.8 5 31.2 3 7.2 - 2.8 - 2.2 - 8
Guarda style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|58.6 3 26.8 1 2.3 - 5.9 - 1.3 - 4
Leiria style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|61.2 7 23.0 3 4.5 - 4.8 - 1.4 - 10
Lisbon style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|45.3 25 29.7 16 12.2 6 4.0 2 2.6 1 50
Madeira style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|62.4 4 20.2 1 1.0 - 6.1 - 1.9 - 5
Portalegre style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|38.9 2 33.5 1 15.2 - 3.3 - 1.8 - 3
Porto style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|51.3 21 32.9 13 6.4 2 4.1 1 1.1 - 37
Santarém style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|49.1 6 29.4 3 9.8 1 3.3 - 2.2 - 10
Setúbal style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|34.7 6 28.4 5 24.9 5 2.7 - 2.4 - 16
Viana do Castelo style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|56.9 4 25.2 2 5.0 - 7.2 - 1.2 - 6
Vila Real style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|60.6 4 26.0 2 2.6 - 5.1 - 1.2 - 6
Viseu style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|64.3 7 19.4 2 2.1 - 6.3 - 1.3 - 9
zEurope style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|53.7 1 31.9 1 7.8 - 3.0 - 2
zRest of the World style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|77.3 2 4.9 - 1.0 - 14.6 - 2
Total style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"|50.6 135 29.1 72 8.8 17 4.4 5 1.7 1 230
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Notes

  1. ^ The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV) contested the 1987 election in a coalition called Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) and won a combined 12.1% of the vote and elected 31 MPs to parliament.

References

  1. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  2. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  3. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  4. ^ Sistema Eleitoral Português: Problemas e Soluções, "Leya", Marina Costa Lobo, 7 November 2018
  5. ^ "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  6. ^ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  7. ^ Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  8. ^ "Eleição da Assembleia da República de 6 de Outubro de 1991". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Eleição da Assembleia da República de 6 de Outubro de 1991. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  9. ^ Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos
  10. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Campanha eleitoral do PS". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  12. ^ "Campanha eleitoral da CDU". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  13. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  14. ^ "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  15. ^ "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-02.

External links

See also

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