Portuguese legislative election, 1991
Encyclopedia
The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. 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.
The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the future President of Portugal
, increased the share by 7% and gained 12 MPs, but did not manage to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. In the first legislative election after the fall of the Eastern Bloc
, the communist dominated Unitarian Democratic Coalition
lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting.
On the right, the People's Party could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of the useful vote by the right-wing voters in the Social Democratic Party, increasing its parliamentary group by only 1 MP. The Party of the National Solidarity, using a populist campaign, achieved for the first time an MP, in what would be the only presence of such party in the Parliament.
The major parties involved and the respective leaders:
Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.
! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|MPs
! rowspan="2" colspan=5 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|MPs %/
votes %
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"
! align="center"|1987
! align="center"|1991
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
|-
|2,902,351||50.60||0.4||148|||135||13||58.70||0.5||1.16
|-
|1,670,758||29.13||6.9||60||72||12||31.30||7.3||1.07
|-
|504,583||8.80||3.3||31||17||14||7.39||5.0||0.84
|-
|254,317||4.43||0.0||4||5||1||2.17||0.6||0.49
|-
|96,096||1.68||—||—||1||—||0.44||—||0.39
|-
|64,159||1.12||0.5||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|48,542||0.85||0.5||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|35,077||0.61||4.3||7||0||7||0.00||2.8||0.0
|-
|25,216||0.44||0.0||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|10,842||0.19||—||—||0||—||0.00||—||0.0
|-
|6,661||0.12||—||—||0||—||0.00||—||0.0
|-
|6,157||0.11||0.8||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,624,759
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|98.07
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.3
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|250
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|230
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|20
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.0
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—
|-
|colspan=2|Blank ballots
|47,652||0.83||0.1||colspan=6 rowspan=3|
|-
|colspan=2|Invalid ballots
|63,020||1.10||0.2
|-
|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 67.78%)
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,735,431
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|3.8
|-
| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
|}
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006....
, 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.
The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the future President of Portugal
President of Portugal
Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....
, increased the share by 7% and gained 12 MPs, but did not manage to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. In the first legislative election after the fall of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
, the communist dominated Unitarian Democratic Coalition
Unitarian Democratic Coalition
The Democratic Unity Coalition is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"...
lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting.
On the right, the People's Party could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of the useful vote by the right-wing voters in the Social Democratic Party, increasing its parliamentary group by only 1 MP. The Party of the National Solidarity, using a populist campaign, achieved for the first time an MP, in what would be the only presence of such party in the Parliament.
The major parties involved and the respective leaders:
- Unitarian Democratic CoalitionUnitarian Democratic CoalitionThe Democratic Unity Coalition is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"...
(CDU), Álvaro CunhalÁlvaro CunhalÁlvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal, who used the name Álvaro Cunhal , was a Portuguese politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of Estado Novo. He served as secretary-general of the Portuguese Communist Party from 1961 to 1992... - Portuguese Socialist PartySocialist Party (Portugal)The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action ....
(PS), Jorge Sampaio - Social Democratic PartySocial Democratic Party (Portugal)The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party...
(PSD), Cavaco SilvaAníbal Cavaco SilvaAníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006.... - People's Party (CDS), Manuel MonteiroManuel MonteiroManuel Fernando da Silva Monteiro is a Portuguese lawyer and politician.After winning the leadership of the conservative Democratic and Social Center in March 1992, he moved the party somewhat further to the right and changed its name to the People's Party in 1995...
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 1987 and 1991 for reference.| Date Released | Institute | Social Democratic Social Democratic Party (Portugal) The Social Democratic Party , is a centre-right liberal conservative political party in Portugal. It is commonly known by its initials, PSD; on ballot papers, its initials appear as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the party's original name, Democratic People's Party... | Socialist Socialist Party (Portugal) The Socialist Party , abbreviated to PS, is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, by militants from Portuguese Socialist Action .... | Green-Communist | Democratic and Social Centre | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 6, 1991 | Election Results | 50.6% 135 seats |
29.1% 72 seats |
8.8% 17 seats |
4.4% 5 seats |
21.5% |
| September 28, 1991 | Euroteste | 47.3% | 35.5% | 8.5% | 4.1% | 11.8% |
| September 28, 1991 | Euroteste | 46.0% | 37.0% | 9.7% | 3.9% | 9.0% |
| September 28, 1991 | Euroespansão | 44.0% | 33.0% | 9.0% | 6.0% | 11.0% |
| September 27, 1991 | Marktest | 43.1% | 32.8% | 7.7% | 4.6% | 10.3% |
| September 27, 1991 | Pluriteste | 41.2% | 34.7% | 8.4% | 8.1% | 6.5% |
| September 20, 1991 | Euroteste | 45.6% | 35.5% | 10.0% | 10.4% | 10.1% |
| September 14, 1991 | Norma | 45.0% | 37.5% | 11.2% | 3.5% | 7.7% |
| July 19, 1987 | 1987 election Portuguese legislative election, 1987 The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on July 19. In the last election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had achieved a relative majority, thing that made its government very weak, managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic Social Center and the Democratic Renovator... |
50.2% 148 seats |
22.2% 60 seats |
12.1% 31 seats |
4.4% 4 seats |
28.0% |
National summary of votes and seats
|-! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left|Parties
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|Votes
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center"|MPs
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
! rowspan="2" colspan=5 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|MPs %/
votes %
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"
! align="center"|1987
Portuguese legislative election, 1987
The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on July 19. In the last election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had achieved a relative majority, thing that made its government very weak, managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic Social Center and the Democratic Renovator...
! align="center"|1991
Portuguese legislative election, 1991
The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. 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...
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|%
! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right|±
|-
|2,902,351||50.60||0.4||148|||135||13||58.70||0.5||1.16
|-
|1,670,758||29.13||6.9||60||72||12||31.30||7.3||1.07
|-
|504,583||8.80||3.3||31||17||14||7.39||5.0||0.84
|-
|254,317||4.43||0.0||4||5||1||2.17||0.6||0.49
|-
|96,096||1.68||—||—||1||—||0.44||—||0.39
|-
|64,159||1.12||0.5||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|48,542||0.85||0.5||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|35,077||0.61||4.3||7||0||7||0.00||2.8||0.0
|-
|25,216||0.44||0.0||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|10,842||0.19||—||—||0||—||0.00||—||0.0
|-
|6,661||0.12||—||—||0||—||0.00||—||0.0
|-
|6,157||0.11||0.8||0||0||0||0.00||0.0||0.0
|-
|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,624,759
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|98.07
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.3
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|250
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|230
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|20
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|0.0
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|—
|-
|colspan=2|Blank ballots
|47,652||0.83||0.1||colspan=6 rowspan=3|
|-
|colspan=2|Invalid ballots
|63,020||1.10||0.2
|-
|colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 67.78%)
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,735,431
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|3.8
|-
| colspan=11 align=left | Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
|}
External links
See also
- Politics of PortugalPolitics of PortugalPolitics in Portugal take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of the Republic is the head of state and has several significant political powers, which he...
- List of political parties in Portugal
- Elections in PortugalElections in PortugalElections in Portugal gives information on election and election results in Portugal.Only the elections since the Carnation Revolution of 1974 are listed here. During the period encompassing the Constitutional Monarchy and the First Republic there were also elections, but only for a limited...