President of Portugal - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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...

has been a republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

since 1910, and since that time the head of state

Head of State

A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

has been the president

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic (Presidente da República Portuguesa, pɾɨziˈðẽtɨ ðɐ ʁɛˈpuβlikɐ).

Under the Portuguese Constitution adopted in 1976, in the wake of the 1974 Carnation Revolution

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...

, the President is elected to a five-year term, and may serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms. A president who serves two consecutive terms may run for a third and final non-consecutive term. The official residence of the Portuguese President is the Belém Palace

Belém Palace

The Belém National Palace, or alternately National Palace of Belém, has, overtime, been the official residence of Portuguese monarchs and, after the installation of the First Republic, the Presidents of the Portuguese Republic...

.

The President theoretically has wide powers, but most are rarely used, following the precedent set by President António Ramalho Eanes

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:...

(1976–1986) and upheld by his successors 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 Jorge Sampaio.

The President, however, has the discretionary power to dissolve Parliament when s/he sees fit, and President Sampaio made use of this prerogative in late 2004 to remove the controversial government of Pedro Santana Lopes

Pedro Santana Lopes

Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes , a Portuguese lawyer and politician, was Prime Minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005. He is a former and current Member of the Portuguese Parliament.-Background:...

, despite the absolute majority of MPs supporting the government.

The President is elected in a two-round system: if no candidate reaches 50% of the votes during the first round, the two candidates with the most votes face each other in a second round held two weeks later. However, the second round has only been needed once, during the 1986 presidential election

Portuguese presidential election, 1986

The Portuguese presidential election of 1986 was held on January 26, the second round took place on February 16.This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% at opinion polls.In first round was easily won by...

. To date, all of the elected presidents since the Carnation Revolution have served for two consecutive terms, and presidents consistently rank as the most popular political figure in the country.

If the president dies or becomes incapacitated while in office, the President of the Assembly assumes the office with restricted powers until a new president can be inaugurated following fresh elections.

Prior to the Carnation Revolution, the powers of the presidency varied widely; some presidents were virtual dictators (such as Pais

Sidónio Pais

Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais was a Portuguese politician and diplomat, the fourth President in 1918. He was known as the President-King.-Family:...

, and Carmona in his early years), while others were little more than figurehead

Figurehead

A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 19th century.-History:Although earlier ships had often had some form of bow ornamentation A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and...

s (such as Carmona in his later years, Craveiro Lopes

Francisco Craveiro Lopes

Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes da Silva de Tovero , 6th Viscount de Molenos-Craveiro, GCTE, ComC, GCA, , was a Portuguese politician and military man...

, and Américo Thomaz

Américo Thomaz

Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás, GCC, GOA, GOSE , archaic spelling: Américo Thomaz, was a Portuguese admiral and politician.-Career:Tomás became minister of the Navy in 1944...

; during their administrations, supreme power was held by Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Portugal

Prime Minister is the current title of the chief of the Portuguese Government. As chief executive, the Prime Minister coordinates the action of ministers, representing the Government from the other organs of state, accountable to Parliament and keeps the President informed...

António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

2011 presidential election

Summary of the 23 January 2011 Portuguese

Portugal

presidential 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...

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....

|align=left|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...

, People's Party, Hope for Portugal Movement

Hope for Portugal Movement

Hope for Portugal Movement is a minor centre political party in Portugal. It has no representatives in the Assembly of the Republic, the Portuguese legislature...

Manuel Alegre

Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, GCL , is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party, and a candidate to the Portuguese presidential election, 2006...

|align=left|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 ....

, Left Bloc, Democratic Party of the Atlantic

Democratic Party of the Atlantic

The Democratic Party of the Atlantic is one of the political parties in Portugal, without parliamentary representation. It is a small party whose electorate concentrates itself in São Miguel island, in the Azores. PDA promotes, officially, not independence, but home rule for the Azores, following...

Fernando Nobre

Fernando José de La Vieter Ribeiro Nobre is a Portuguese doctor who is the founder and president of the Portuguese NGO AMI . In 2007 he was voted as the 25th greatest Portuguese ever in the contest Os Grandes Portugueses, being the 5th most voted among Portuguese living people at that date...

|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...

Francisco Lopes

Francisco José de Almeida Lopes is a Portuguese politician who, supported by the Communist Party, ran for president in the Portuguese presidential election of 2011....

|align=left|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....

José Manuel Coelho

Jose Manuel Vieira Coelho da Mata is a Portuguese politician. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party until 1999, and still calls himself a communist "who evolved". He was substitute deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira for the New Democracy Party, taking office in 2008...

Independent (politician)

|align="right" |67,110
|align="right" |1.59
|-
|colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,214,860
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
|-
|align=right colspan="3"|Blank ballots
|width="65" align="right" |192,127
|width="40" align="right" |4.28
|-
|align=right colspan="3" |Invalid ballots
|width="65" align="right"|85,466
|width="40" align="right"|1.90
|-
|colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total (turnout 46.52%)
|width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,492,453
|width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
|-
|colspan=5 align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
|}

State visits

The President of Portugal oftentimes makes official state visits to other foreign countries. For a list of visits made by President Cavaco Silva see:

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