1987 Portuguese legislative election

Portuguese legislative election, 1987
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly; 125 seats needed for a majority
Prime Minister before election; Aníbal Cavaco Silva; PSD	Elected Prime Minister ; Aníbal Cavaco Silva; PSD

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on 19 July. In the previous election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had won a minority government managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic and Social Center and the Democratic Renewal Party, and after the approval of a no-confidence motion from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renewal Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

The PSD was very popular going into the election, and was elected to a landslide majority government—the biggest that a Portuguese party had ever won in a free election. The left-wing Democratic Unity 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 and Social Center lost almost half of its vote share, due to the effect of tactical voting for the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party. European elections were held on the same day.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
Democratic and Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

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

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 1985 and 1987 for reference.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PSD	PS	CDU	PRD	CDS	Others	Lead
Date Released	Polling Firm						Others	Lead
19 Jul 1987	Leg. Election	50.2 148 seats	22.2 60 seats	12.1 31 seats	4.9 7 seats	4.4 4 seats	6.2 0 seats	28.0
19 Jul	RTP1	48.0 – 50.0	21.0 – 23.0	12.5 – 14.5	5.0 – 7.0	3.0 – 5.0	–	27.0
19 Jul	Antena1	45.0 – 47.0	24.0 – 25.0	–	–	–	–	21.0 – 22.0
Exit polls
17 Jul	Euroexpansão/Expresso	41.0 – 44.0	22.0 – 25.0	13.0 – 15.0	11.0 – 14.0	4.0 – 6.0	–	19.0
1987
6 Oct 1985	Leg. Election	29.9 88 seats	20.8 57 seats	15.5 38 seats	17.9 45 seats	10.0 22 seats	5.9 0 seats	9.1

National summary of votes and seats

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF9900;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF66FF;" data-sort-value="Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF0000;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unity Coalition" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: green;" data-sort-value="Democratic Renewal Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0093DD;" data-sort-value="Democratic and Social Centre – People's Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: red;" data-sort-value="Revolutionary Socialist Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: darkred;" data-sort-value="Portuguese Democratic Movement" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: yellow;" data-sort-value="Christian Democratic Party (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2A5392;" data-sort-value="People's Monarchist Party (Portugal)" | 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="Communist Party (Reconstructed)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FF0000;" data-sort-value="Workers Party of Socialist Unity" |

e • d Summary of the 19 July 1987 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
Parties		Votes	%	±	1985	1987	±	%	±	MPs %/ votes %
Social Democratic	2,850,784	50.22	20.3	88	148	60	59.20	24.0	1.18
Socialist	1,262,506	22.24	1.4	57	60	3	24.00	1.2	1.08
Democratic Unity Coalition^[A]^[B]	689,137	12.14	3.4	38	31	7	12.40	2.8	1.02
Democratic Renewal	278,561	4.91	13.0	45	7	38	2.80	15.2	0.57
Democratic and Social Centre	251,987	4.44	5.6	22	4	18	1.60	7.2	0.36
	People's Democratic Union	50,717	0.89	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Revolutionary Socialist Party	32,977	0.58	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Portuguese Democratic Movement	32,607	0.57	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
Christian Democratic Party	31,667	0.56	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
PPM	23,218	0.41	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat	20,800	0.37	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Communist Party (Reconstructed)	18,544	0.33	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity	9,185	0.16	0.6	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	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. ^B Portuguese Communist Party (29 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.^[3]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share

PSD			50.22%
PS			22.24%
CDU			12.14%
PRD			4.91%
CDS			4.44%
UDP			0.89%
Others/Invalides			5.16%

Parliamentary seats

PSD			59.20%
PS			24.00%
CDU			12.40%
PRD			2.80%
CDS			1.60%

Distribution by constituency

e • d Results of the 1987 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency
Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
Constituency	PSD		PS		CDU		PRD		CDS		Total S
Azores	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|66.7	4	20.0	1	2.3	-	3.0	-	3.3	-	5
Aveiro	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|60.4	11	22.9	4	4.4	-	2.7	-	5.3	-	15
Beja	24.5	1	20.3	1	38.7	3	5.7	-	2.0	-	5
Braga	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|53.4	10	25.9	5	6.1	1	3.3	-	5.9	1	17
Bragança	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|60.8	3	19.2	1	3.2	-	1.3	-	7.6	-	4
Castelo Branco	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|52.1	4	22.4	2	7.1	-	6.0	-	4.7	-	6
Coimbra	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|50.0	6	28.7	4	7.2	1	3.5	-	4.5	-	11
EvoraÉvora	32.1	2	15.4	-	36.2	2	7.7	-	2.1	-	4
Faro	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|46.7	5	24.9	3	10.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	9
Guarda	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|60.0	4	21.8	1	3.3	-	2.0	-	6.6	-	5
Leiria	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|60.8	9	18.7	2	5.9	-	3.0	-	6.0	-	11
Lisbon	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|45.8	28	21.2	12	16.5	10	6.9	4	3.7	2	56
Madeira	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|65.5	4	16.2	1	1.9	-	3.3	-	5.2	-	5
Portalegre	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|37.4	1	25.1	1	20.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	3
Porto	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|50.9	22	26.7	11	9.4	4	4.0	1	4.0	1	39
Santarém	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|47.9	7	21.7	3	12.6	1	7.3	1	3.6	-	12
Setúbal	32.6	6	17.6	3	32.7	7	8.7	1	1.9	-	17
Viana do Castelo	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|54.5	5	20.3	1	6.3	-	4.8	-	7.7	-	6
Vila Real	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|62.5	5	20.3	1	4.1	-	1.4	-	5.0	-	6
Viseu	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|64.1	8	17.9	2	2.9	-	1.7	-	7.0	-	10
zEurope	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|37.0	1	28.4	1	15.9	-	4.9	-	6.6	-	2
zRest of the World	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|63.2	2	7.3	-	1.4	-	1.7	-	19.9	-	2
Total	style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party (Portugal)/meta/color; color:white;"\|50.2	148	22.2	60	12.1	31	4.9	7	4.4	4	250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

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See also: Elections in the Azores Madeira Lisbon Porto Presidential elections

1987 Portuguese legislative election

Parties

Opinion Polling

National summary of votes and seats

Distribution by constituency

References

External links

See also

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

Portugal
v t e