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1991 Portuguese legislative election

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1991 Portuguese legislative election

← 1987 6 October 1991 1995 →

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Registered8,462,357 Increase6.7%
Turnout5,735,431 (67.8%)
Decrease3.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Cavaco Silva 1988.png
Jorge Sampaio 2.jpg
Alvaro Cunhal 1980 (cropped).jpg
Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Jorge Sampaio Álvaro Cunhal
Party PSD PS PCP
Alliance CDU
Leader since 2 June 1985 15 January 1989 30 September 1987
Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon
Last election 148 seats, 50.2% 60 seats, 22.2% 31 seats, 12.1%
Seats before 138 56 26
Seats won 135 72 17
Seat change Decrease 3* Increase 16* Decrease 9*
Popular vote 2,902,351 1,670,758 504,583
Percentage 50.6% 29.1% 8.8%
Swing Increase 0.4 pp Increase 6.9 pp Decrease 3.3 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Freitas do Amaral, XV Cimeira Ibero-Americana - Salamanca, Espanha (cropped).jpg
Leader Diogo Freitas do Amaral Manuel Sérgio
Party CDS PSN
Leader since 31 January 1988 26 June 1990
Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon
Last election 4 seats, 4.4% Did not contest
Seats before 4
Seats won 5 1
Seat change Increase 1* Increase 1
Popular vote 254,317 96,096
Percentage 4.4% 1.7%
Swing Decrease 0.0 pp New party


Prime Minister before election

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
PSD

Prime Minister after election

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
PSD

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

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Leadership changes and challenges

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CDS 1988 leadership election

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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]

Ballot: 31 January 1988
Candidate Votes %
Diogo Freitas do Amaral Voice vote
Turnout 100.0
Source:

PS 1989 leadership election

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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]

Ballot: 15 January 1989
Candidate Votes %
Jorge Sampaio WIN
Jaime Gama
Turnout
Source:

PRD 1991 leadership election

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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:

Ballot: 2 June 1991
Candidate Votes %
Pedro Canavarro 145 79.2
Hermínio Martinho 38 20.8
Turnout 183
Source: [9]

Electoral system

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Party slogans

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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

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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

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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 PSD PS CDU CDS PSN PSR 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

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Summary of the 6 October 1991 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
1987 1991 ± % ±
Social Democratic 2,902,351 50.60 Increase0.4 148 135 Decrease13 58.70 Decrease0.5 1.16
Socialist 1,670,758 29.13 Increase6.9 60 72 Increase12 31.30 Increase7.3 1.07
Democratic Unity Coalition[d] 504,583 8.80 Decrease3.3 31 17 Decrease14 7.39 Decrease5.0 0.84
Democratic and Social Centre 254,317 4.43 Decrease0.0 4 5 Increase1 2.17 Increase0.6 0.49
National Solidarity 96,096 1.68 1 0.44 0.39
Revolutionary Socialist 64,159 1.12 Increase0.5 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Portuguese Workers' Communist 48,542 0.85 Increase0.5 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Democratic Renewal 35,077 0.61 Decrease4.3 7 0 Decrease7 0.00 Decrease2.8 0.0
People's Monarchist 25,216 0.44 Increase0.0 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 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 Decrease0.8 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Total valid 5,624,759 98.07 Increase0.3 250 230 Decrease20 100.00 Steady0.0
Blank ballots 47,652 0.83 Decrease0.1
Invalid ballots 63,020 1.10 Decrease0.2
Total 5,735,431 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 8,462,357 67.78 Decrease3.8
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
Vote share
PSD
50.60%
PS
29.13%
CDU
8.80%
CDS
4.43%
PSN
1.68%
PSR
1.12%
PCTP/MRPP
0.85%
PRD
0.61%
Others
0.86%
Blank/Invalid
1.93%
Parliamentary seats
PSD
58.70%
PS
31.30%
CDU
7.39%
CDS
2.17%
PSN
0.43%

Distribution by constituency

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Results of the 1991 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency
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

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Notes

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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%.
  3. ^ 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%.
  4. ^ Portuguese Communist Party (15 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.
  5. ^ People's Democratic Union electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.

References

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  1. ^ Sistema Eleitoral Português: Problemas e Soluções, "Leya", Marina Costa Lobo, 7 November 2018
  2. ^ "Entrevista a Adriano Moreira", RTP, 30 January 1988. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Diogo Freitas do Amaral. "Vivi e agi à minha maneira"", Diário de Notícias, 4 October 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  4. ^ "Perdeu PS para Guterres e Beleza ficou com votos do líder no congresso", JN, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  5. ^ "8.º Congresso do PS", RTP, 14 January 1989. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Jorge Sampaio. A história de duas derrotas que fizeram o candidato a Belém ", RTP, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  7. ^ "António Ramalho Eanes", Museu da Presidência da República, 10 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  8. ^ "4ª Convenção Nacional do PRD", RTP, 15 June 1990. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Legislativas 91 – Parte IV" Minute 36:57, RTP, 6 October 1991. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  11. ^ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  12. ^ Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos
  15. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  16. ^ "Campanha eleitoral do PS". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ^ "Campanha eleitoral da CDU". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. ^ "Legislativas 91 – Parte VI". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  20. ^ "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
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See also

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