1991 Portuguese legislative election
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230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 8,462,357 6.7% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 5,735,431 (67.8%) 3.8 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1991 Portuguese legislative election 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.[1]
The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of Cavaco Silva, won a historic third term and won an absolute majority for the second consecutive election. While it lost 13 MPs due to the reduction of the overall number from the original 250 to 230, although just a 3 seat loss if the 1987 election results are tabulated with the new seat distribution, it gained a higher share of the vote than in 1987. 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 percentage points and gained 12 MPs, a gain of 16 if compared with 1987 with the new seat distribution, 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 almost 10 MPs and 4 points of the votes, 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 percent, and for the first time below 70 percent of the electorate.
Background
[edit]Leadership changes and challenges
[edit]CDS 1988 leadership election
[edit]After CDS's poor results, just 4 percent, in the 1987 general elections, then CDS leader Adriano Moreira announced he would leave the leadership and called a party congress to elect a new leader.[2] Diogo Freitas do Amaral, former party leader and defeated candidate in the 1986 presidential election, returned to the party and was the sole candidate to the party's leadership.[3]
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Diogo Freitas do Amaral | Voice vote | ||
Turnout | 100.0 | ||
Source: |
PS 1989 leadership election
[edit]In the 1987 general election the PS polled 2nd with just 22 percent, while the PSD won a historic absolute majority. Then party leader, Vítor Constâncio was facing pressures because of his strategy, with interferences also from President Mário Soares, and, adding to this, his difficulty in finding a strong candidate for Lisbon to contest the 1989 local elections.[4] Because of these pressures, Constâncio resign in late 1988 and a party congress to elect a new leader was called for mid January 1989. Two candidates were on the ballot, Jorge Sampaio and Jaime Gama.[5] Sampaio was easily elected as PS leader.[6]
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Jorge Sampaio | WIN | ||
Jaime Gama | |||
Turnout | |||
Source: |
PRD 1991 leadership election
[edit]The Democratic Renewal Party's results in the 1987 election were disappointing and António Ramalho Eanes resigned from the leadership.[7] Hermínio Martinho returned to the leadership, but the party was plagued by deep divisions on its ideology and strategy, with key members, including Ramalho Eanes, announcing their departure from the party[8] In June 1991, the party held a leadership ballot between Hermínio Martinho and Pedro Canavarro. Martinho defended the dissolution of the party, while Canavarro proposed the continuation of the party. The ballot results gave Canavarro a landslide victory.[9] The results were the following:
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Pedro Canavarro | 145 | 79.2 | |
Hermínio Martinho | 38 | 20.8 | |
Turnout | 183 | ||
Source: [9] |
Electoral system
[edit]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.[10]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[11] 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.[12]
For these elections, and compared with the 1987 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[13]
District | Number of MPs | Map |
---|---|---|
Lisbon(–6) | 50 | |
Porto(–2) | 37 | |
Braga(–1) and Setúbal(–1) | 16 | |
Aveiro(–1) | 14 | |
Leiria(–1), Santarém(–2) and Coimbra(–1) | 10 | |
Viseu(–1) | 9 | |
Faro(–1) | 8 | |
Vila Real and Viana do Castelo | 6 | |
Azores, Castelo Branco, Madeira | 5 | |
Beja(–1), Bragança, Évora and Guarda(–1) | 4 | |
Portalegre | 3 | |
Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
Parties
[edit]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:
With the 1987 seat distribution
[edit]Name | Ideology | Political position | Leader | 1987 result | Seats at dissolution[14] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | Seats | |||||||
PPD/PSD | Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata |
Liberal conservatism Classical liberalism |
Centre-right | Aníbal Cavaco Silva |
50.2% | 148 / 250
|
148 / 250
| |
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
| |
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
| |
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
| |
Ind. | Independent Independente |
Democratic Renewal Party caucus dissolved in December 1990; Ecologist Party "The Greens" caucus dissolved in December 1990; |
9 / 250
|
1987 results with the new seat distribution
[edit]Name | Ideology | Political position | Leader | 1987 notional result | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | Seats | ||||||
PPD/PSD | Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata |
Liberal conservatism Classical liberalism |
Centre-right | Aníbal Cavaco Silva |
50.2% | 138 / 230
| |
PS | Socialist Party Partido Socialista |
Social democracy | Centre-left | Jorge Sampaio | 22.2% | 56 / 230
| |
PCP | Portuguese Communist Party Partido Comunista Português |
Communism Marxism–Leninism |
Far-left | Álvaro Cunhal | 12.1% | 24 / 230
| |
PEV | Ecologist Party "The Greens" Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" |
Eco-socialism Green politics |
Left-wing | - | 2 / 230
| ||
PRD | Democratic Renewal Party Partido Renovador Democrático |
Centrism Third Way |
Centre | Pedro Canavarro |
4.9% | 6 / 230
| |
CDS | Democratic and Social Centre Centro Democrático e Social |
Christian democracy Conservatism |
Centre-right to right-wing |
Diogo Freitas do Amaral |
4.4% | 4 / 230
|
Campaign period
[edit]Party slogans
[edit]Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
---|---|---|---|---|
PSD | « No bom caminho » | "On the right track" | [15] | |
PS | « Agora nós » | "Now us." | [16] | |
CDU | « Para um Portugal melhor » | "For a better Portugal" | [17] | |
CDS | « A verdade, sempre! » | "The truth, always!" | [18] | |
PSN | « O sol está a nascer para todos. » | "The sun is rising for everyone." | [19] |
Candidates' debates
[edit]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.[20]
Opinion polling
[edit]The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. 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.
Exit poll
Date Released | Polling Firm | PS | Others | Lead | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 Oct 1991 | Leg. election | 50.6 135 |
29.1 72 |
8.8 17 |
4.4 5 |
1.7 1 |
1.1 0 |
4.3 0 |
21.5 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | RTP1 - Universidade Católica Seat projection |
48.0–51.9 128/138 |
28.5–31.5 73/83 |
7.5–10.0 11/14 |
4.5–5.5 4/7 |
? 1/2 |
? 0/1 |
— | 19.5–20.4 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | TSF/Expresso - Euroexpansão | 45.8–50.2 | 29.8–33.9 | 6.8–9.1 | 3.7–5.5 | 1.0–2.0 | 1.4–2.6 | — | 16.0–16.3 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | Antena1 - Euroteste | 47.0–50.0 | 31.0–34.0 | 7.5–10.0 | 4.0–5.0 | – | 1.0–1.5 | — | 16.0 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | Rádio Comercial - GEOIDEIA | 49.0–52.0 | 29.0–31.0 | 7.0–9.0 | 3.0–4.0 | 2.0–3.0 | 1.0–2.0 | — | 20.0–21.0 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | Rádio Press | 45.5 | 35.0 | 9.6 | 4.5 | – | – | — | 10.5 | ||||||
6 Oct 1991 | Rádio Correio da Manhã | 45.8–50.2 | 29.8–33.9 | 6.8–9.1 | 3.7–5.5 | 1.0–2.0 | 1.4–2.6 | — | 16.0–16.3 | ||||||
29 Sep 1991 | Universidade Católica[b] Seat projection |
51.3 134 |
29.3 73 |
7.5 12 |
5.0 5 |
— | — | 7.0 2 |
22.0 | ||||||
28 Sep 1991 | Euroteste | 47.3 | 35.5 | 8.5 | 4.1 | — | — | 4.6 | 11.8 | ||||||
28 Sep 1991 | Euroteste | 46.0 | 37.0 | 9.7 | 3.9 | — | — | 3.4 | 9.0 | ||||||
28 Sep 1991 | Euroexpansão | 44.0 | 33.0 | 9.0 | 6.0 | — | — | 8.0 | 11.0 | ||||||
27 Sep 1991 | Marktest | 43.1 | 32.8 | 7.7 | 4.6 | — | — | 11.8 | 10.3 | ||||||
27 Sep 1991 | Pluriteste | 41.2 | 34.7 | 8.4 | 8.1 | — | — | 7.6 | 6.5 | ||||||
20 Sep 1991 | Euroteste | 45.6 | 35.5 | 10.0 | 4.4 | — | — | 4.5 | 10.1 | ||||||
20 Sep 1991 | Marktest | 41.9 | 31.9 | 7.3 | 4.4 | — | — | 14.5 | 10.0 | ||||||
16 Sep 1991 | Pluriteste | 39.2 | 26.6 | 6.2 | 6.0 | — | — | 22.0 | 12.6 | ||||||
16 Sep 1991 | Euroteste | 45.1 | 34.5 | 10.2 | 5.2 | — | — | 5.0 | 10.6 | ||||||
14 Sep 1991 | Norma | 45.0 | 37.5 | 11.2 | 3.5 | — | — | 2.8 | 7.5 | ||||||
28 Aug 1991 | Euroexpansão/Marktest | 35.3 | 36.8 | 8.7 | 4.9 | — | — | 14.3 | 1.5 | ||||||
4 Aug 1991 | Euroteste/JN | 47.5 | 37.8 | 12.3 | 8.2 | — | — | — | 7.7 | ||||||
19 Jul 1991 | Norma | 43.7 | 32.9 | 12.4 | 6.5 | — | — | 4.5 | 10.8 | ||||||
19 Jul 1991 | Euroteste | 45.4 | 36.6 | 10.8 | 4.0 | — | — | 3.2 | 8.8 | ||||||
13 Jan 1991 | Euroteste[c] | 47.5 | 36.9 | 9.3 | 3.5 | — | — | 2.7 | 10.6 | ||||||
17 Dec 1989 | Local elections | 35.4 | 36.8 | 13.3 | 9.2 | — | — | 5.4 | 1.4 | ||||||
18 Jun 1989 | EP elections | 32.8 | 28.5 | 14.4 | 14.2 | — | 0.8 | 9.3 | 4.3 | ||||||
19 Jul 1987 | Leg. election | 50.2 148 |
22.2 60 |
12.1 31 |
4.4 4 |
Did not exist | 0.6 0 |
10.5 7 |
28.0 | ||||||
National summary of votes and seats
[edit]Parties | Votes | % | ± | MPs | MPs %/ votes % | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1987 | 1991 | ± | % | ± | ||||||
Social Democratic | 2,902,351 | 50.60 | 0.4 | 148 | 135 | 13 | 58.70 | 0.5 | 1.16 | |
Socialist | 1,670,758 | 29.13 | 6.9 | 60 | 72 | 12 | 31.30 | 7.3 | 1.07 | |
Democratic Unity Coalition[d] | 504,583 | 8.80 | 3.3 | 31 | 17 | 14 | 7.39 | 5.0 | 0.84 | |
Democratic and Social Centre | 254,317 | 4.43 | 0.0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2.17 | 0.6 | 0.49 | |
National Solidarity | 96,096 | 1.68 | — | — | 1 | — | 0.44 | — | 0.39 | |
Revolutionary Socialist | 64,159 | 1.12 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Portuguese Workers' Communist | 48,542 | 0.85 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Democratic Renewal | 35,077 | 0.61 | 4.3 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | 2.8 | 0.0 | |
People's Monarchist | 25,216 | 0.44 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 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[e] | 6,157 | 0.11 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Total valid | 5,624,759 | 98.07 | 0.3 | 250 | 230 | 20 | 100.00 | 0.0 | — | |
Blank ballots | 47,652 | 0.83 | 0.1 | |||||||
Invalid ballots | 63,020 | 1.10 | 0.2 | |||||||
Total | 5,735,431 | 100.00 | ||||||||
Registered voters/turnout | 8,462,357 | 67.78 | 3.8 | |||||||
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
Distribution by constituency
[edit]Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PSD | PS | CDU | CDS | PSN | |||||||
Azores | 64.1 | 4 | 25.8 | 1 | 1.3 | - | 3.4 | - | 5 | ||
Aveiro | 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 | 53.6 | 10 | 31.5 | 5 | 4.6 | - | 5.6 | 1 | 0.8 | - | 16 |
Bragança | 57.9 | 3 | 25.7 | 1 | 2.1 | - | 8.2 | - | 1.5 | - | 4 |
Castelo Branco | 51.8 | 3 | 32.4 | 2 | 4.6 | - | 3.9 | - | 2.3 | - | 5 |
Coimbra | 49.9 | 6 | 34.4 | 4 | 5.0 | - | 3.5 | - | 1.7 | - | 10 |
Évora | 35.0 | 2 | 25.9 | 1 | 27.1 | 1 | 2.8 | - | 1.4 | - | 4 |
Faro | 50.8 | 5 | 31.2 | 3 | 7.2 | - | 2.8 | - | 2.2 | - | 8 |
Guarda | 58.6 | 3 | 26.8 | 1 | 2.3 | - | 5.9 | - | 1.3 | - | 4 |
Leiria | 61.2 | 7 | 23.0 | 3 | 4.5 | - | 4.8 | - | 1.4 | - | 10 |
Lisbon | 45.3 | 25 | 29.7 | 16 | 12.2 | 6 | 4.0 | 2 | 2.6 | 1 | 50 |
Madeira | 62.4 | 4 | 20.2 | 1 | 1.0 | - | 6.1 | - | 1.9 | - | 5 |
Portalegre | 38.9 | 2 | 33.5 | 1 | 15.2 | - | 3.3 | - | 1.8 | - | 3 |
Porto | 51.3 | 21 | 32.9 | 13 | 6.4 | 2 | 4.1 | 1 | 1.1 | - | 37 |
Santarém | 49.1 | 6 | 29.4 | 3 | 9.8 | 1 | 3.3 | - | 2.2 | - | 10 |
Setúbal | 34.7 | 6 | 28.4 | 5 | 24.9 | 5 | 2.7 | - | 2.4 | - | 16 |
Viana do Castelo | 56.9 | 4 | 25.2 | 2 | 5.0 | - | 7.2 | - | 1.2 | - | 6 |
Vila Real | 60.6 | 4 | 26.0 | 2 | 2.6 | - | 5.1 | - | 1.2 | - | 6 |
Viseu | 64.3 | 7 | 19.4 | 2 | 2.1 | - | 6.3 | - | 1.3 | - | 9 |
Europe | 53.7 | 1 | 31.9 | 1 | 7.8 | - | 3.0 | - | 2 | ||
Outside Europe | 77.3 | 2 | 4.9 | - | 1.0 | - | 14.6 | - | 2 | ||
Total | 50.6 | 135 | 29.1 | 72 | 8.8 | 17 | 4.4 | 5 | 1.7 | 1 | 230 |
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
Maps
[edit]-
Winner and seats by constituency.
-
Most voted political force by municipality.
Notes
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ Results presented here exclude undecideds (7.2%). With their inclusion results are: PSD: 47.6%; PS: 27.2%; CDU: 6.9%; CDS: 4.6%; Others/Invalid: 6.5%.
- ^ Results presented here exclude undecideds (15.0%). With their inclusion results are: PSD: 40.4%; PS: 31.4%; CDU: 7.9%; CDS: 3.0%; Others/Invalid: 2.3%.
- ^ Portuguese Communist Party (15 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.
- ^ People's Democratic Union electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.
References
[edit]- ^ Sistema Eleitoral Português: Problemas e Soluções, "Leya", Marina Costa Lobo, 7 November 2018
- ^ "Entrevista a Adriano Moreira", RTP, 30 January 1988. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "Diogo Freitas do Amaral. "Vivi e agi à minha maneira"", Diário de Notícias, 4 October 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "Perdeu PS para Guterres e Beleza ficou com votos do líder no congresso", JN, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "8.º Congresso do PS", RTP, 14 January 1989. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "Jorge Sampaio. A história de duas derrotas que fizeram o candidato a Belém ", RTP, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "António Ramalho Eanes", Museu da Presidência da República, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "4ª Convenção Nacional do PRD", RTP, 15 June 1990. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ a b "Legislativas 91 – Parte IV" Minute 36:57, RTP, 6 October 1991. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
- ^ "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"
- ^ "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.
- ^ Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos
- ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "Campanha eleitoral do PS". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "Campanha eleitoral da CDU". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ "Legislativas 91 – Parte VI". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
External links
[edit]- Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
- Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político