Portuguese presidential election, 1980

The Portuguese presidential election of 1980 was held on December 7.

Incumbent president General Ramalho Eanes gathered the support of the Socialist Party

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 ....

, despite the objection of their leader, Mário Soares

Mário Soares

Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL, KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Family:...

, and also the support of the Portuguese Communist Party

Portuguese Communist Party

The Portuguese Communist Party is a major left-wing political party in Portugal. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, and its organization is based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself to be patriotic and internationalist....

, whose candidate, Carlos Brito

Carlos Brito

Carlos Alfredo de Brito, GCIH is a Portuguese politician. He joined the illegal Portuguese Communist Party during the authoritarian New State regime , by whom he was imprisoned....

, withdrew the week before the election giving his support to Eanes. The Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers also gave support to Eanes, whose picture became a feature on numerous walls around the country, painted by Communist Party activists.

One of the major players in the democratic revolution of 1974, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, GCL , formerly a Portuguese military officer, was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon.-Biography:...

, was also a candidate, for the second time, but finished far behind his previous result

Portuguese presidential election, 1976

The Portuguese presidential election of 1976 was held on June 27.With a broad base of support that comprised the center-left and the center-right, Ramalho Eanes won the election on the first round and became the first elected President of Portugal after the Carnation Revolution.The Portuguese...

of 1976. The newly founded Workers Party of Socialist Unity

Workers Party of Socialist Unity

Workers Party of Socialist Unity is a small Trotskyist political party in Portugal, founded in 1976 after a split from the Portuguese Socialist Party. It is a member of the Fourth International led by Pierre Lambert....

presented its own candidate, Aires Rodrigues.

His main opponent, General Soares Carneiro, was known for his right-wing views and was branded by opponents as a hardliner, with links to the dictatotial regime overthrown

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

only six years before. He was supported by the Democratic Alliance

Democratic Alliance (Portugal)

The Democratic Alliance was a coalition in Portugal between the Social Democratic Party , the Democratic Social Center and the People's Monarchist Party , including also a group of...

, a centre-right coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party

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...

the Democratic Social Center, and the smaller People's Monarchist Party.

Two days before the election, two of Soares Carneiro's leading supporters, Prime Ministers Francisco Sá Carneiro

Francisco Sá Carneiro

Francisco Manuel Lumbrales de Sá Carneiro, GCTE, GCC, GCL founded the Portuguese Social Democratic Party in 1974 and was elected Prime Minister of Portugal in January 1980, but only held office for eleven months, dying in a plane crash with his partner, Snu Abecassis, on December 4, 1980...

(no relation) and Defence Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa

Adelino Amaro da Costa

Adelino Manuel Lopes Amaro da Costa, GCIH was a Portuguese Politician.-Background:...

died in an air accident while heading for a rally in Oporto. Despite the accident, the election went ahead as planned, and predictions that a second round would be needed were shown to be wrong, with Ramalho Eanes winning with almost 57 percent, against 40 percent for Soares Carneiro.

Results

Summary of the 7 December 1980 Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

presidential

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 ....

election results

Elections in Portugal

Elections 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...

António Ramalho Eanes

António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes, GColTE, GCL, CavA, KE is a Portuguese general and politician who was the 16th President of Portugal from 1976 to 1986.-Background:...

|align=left|Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

António Soares Carneiro

António da Silva Osório Braga Soares Carneiro, GCTE is a Portuguese military officer and politician...

|align=left|Democratic Alliance

Democratic Alliance (Portugal)

The Democratic Alliance was a coalition in Portugal between the Social Democratic Party , the Democratic Social Center and the People's Monarchist Party , including also a group of...

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho

Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, GCL , formerly a Portuguese military officer, was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon.-Biography:...

|align=left|Independent

Independent (politician)

Carlos Galvão de Melo

Carlos Galvão de Melo was a Portuguese military officer from the Portuguese Air Force....

|align=left|Independent

Independent (politician)

Independent (politician)

Workers Party of Socialist Unity

Carlos Brito

Carlos Alfredo de Brito, GCIH is a Portuguese politician. He joined the illegal Portuguese Communist Party during the authoritarian New State regime , by whom he was imprisoned....

|align=left|Portuguese Communist Party

Portuguese Communist Party

|colspan="2" align="center" |left the race
|-
|colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,780,242
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|-
|align=right colspan="3"|Blank ballots
|width="65" align="right" |44,014
|width="40" align="right" |0.75
|-
|align=right colspan="3" |Invalid ballots
|width="65" align="right"|16,076
|width="40" align="right"|0.28
|-
|colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 84.39%)
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,840,332
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
|-
|colspan=5 align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
|}

Results

See also