Portuguese legislative election, 1991

Portuguese legislative election, 1991

6 October 1991

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Jorge Sampaio Party PSD PS Leader since 2 June 1985 15 January 1989 Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2] Last election 148 seats, 50.2% 60 seats, 22.2% Seats won 135 72 Seat change 13 12 Popular vote 2,902,351 1,670,758 Percentage 50.6% 29.1% Swing 0.4% 6.9%

Prime Minister before election Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD Elected Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD

Portugal

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on 6 October. 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. 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 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 Democratic Unity Coalition lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting.

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%, and for the first time below 70% of the electorate.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Socialist Party (PS), Jorge Sampaio
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• CDS - People's Party (CDS), Diogo Freitas do Amaral

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the third consecutive time.

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.

Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PSD	PS	CDU	CDS	Others	Lead
6 Oct 1991	Leg. Election	50.6 135 seats	29.1 72 seats	8.8 17 seats	4.4 5 seats	7.1 1 seat	21.5
6 Oct	RTP1 - Universidade Católica	48.0 – 51.9	28.5 – 31.5	7.5 – 10.0	4.5 – 5.5	—	19.5 – 20.4
6 Oct	TSF/Expresso - Euroexpansão	45.8 – 50.2	29.8 – 33.9	6.8 – 9.1	3.7 – 5.5	—	16.0 – 16.3
6 Oct	Antena1 - Euroteste	47.0 – 50.0	31.0 – 34.0	7.5 – 10.0	4.0 – 5.0	—	16.0
6 Oct	Rádio Comercial - GEOIDEIA	49.0 – 52.0	29.0 – 31.0	7.0 – 9.0	3.0 – 4.0	—	20.0 – 21.0
6 Oct	Rádio Press	45.5	35.0	9.6	4.5	—	10.5
Exit polls
28 Sep	Euroteste	47.3	35.5	8.5	4.1	4.6	11.8
28 Sep	Euroteste	46.0	37.0	9.7	3.9	3.4	9.0
28 Sep	Euroexpansão	44.0	33.0	9.0	6.0	8.0	11.0
27 Sep	Marktest	43.1	32.8	7.7	4.6	11.8	10.3
27 Sep	Pluriteste	41.2	34.7	8.4	8.1	7.6	6.5
20 Sep	Euroteste	45.6	35.5	10.0	4.4	4.5	10.1
20 Sep	Marktest	41.9	31.9	7.3	4.4	14.5	10.0
16 Sep	Pluriteste	39.2	26.6	6.2	6.0	22.0	12.6
16 Sep	Euroteste	45.1	34.5	10.2	5.2	5.0	10.6
14 Sep	Norma	45.0	37.5	11.2	3.5	2.8	7.5
28 Aug	Euroexpansão/Marktest	35.3	36.8	8.7	4.9	14.3	1.5
4 Aug	Euroteste/JN	47.5	37.8	12.3	8.2	N/A	7.7
1991
19 Jul 1987	Leg. Election	50.2 148 seats	22.2 60 seats	12.1 31 seats	4.4 4 seats	11.1 7 seats	28.0

National summary of votes and seats

 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	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^[A]	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 Party	96,096	1.68	N/A	N/A	1	N/A	0.44	N/A	0.39
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	64,159	1.12	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers' Communist Party	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 Party	25,216	0.44	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	10,842	0.19	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Left Revolutionary Front	6,661	0.12	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	People's Democratic Union^[B]	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 (turnout 67.78%)		5,735,431	100.00	3.8
^A Portuguese Communist Party (15 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[3] ^B People's Democratic Union electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.
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%
Others/Invalides			3.40%

Parliamentary seats
PSD			58.70%
PS			31.30%
CDU			7.39%
CDS			2.17%
PSN			0.43%

Distribution by constituency

 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
Rest of the World	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

References

1. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
2. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
3. Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal