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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
Registered	8,462,357 6.7%
Turnout	5,735,431 (67.8%) 3.8 pp
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 pp 6.9 pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Álvaro Cunhal Diogo Freitas do Amaral Party PCP CDS Alliance CDU Leader since 30 September 1987 31 January 1988 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon[3] Last election 31 seats, 12.1% 4 seats, 4.4% Seats won 17 5 Seat change 14 1 Popular vote 504,583 254,317 Percentage 8.8% 4.4% Swing 3.3 pp 0.0 pp
Prime Minister before election Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD Elected Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD

This article is part of the series:
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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.

Electoral system

The Parliament of the Portuguese Republic consists of a single chamber, the Assembly of the Republic, composed of 230 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a maximum term of four years. Assembly members represent the entire country, rather than the constituencies in which they were elected. Governments require majority support in the Assembly in order to remain in office. This election saw a reduction of seats to 230 from the 250 in the previous elections.

Each one of Portugal's eighteen administrative districts, as well as each one of the country's two autonomous regions - the Azores and Madeira - is an electoral constituency. Portuguese voters residing outside the national territory are grouped into two electoral constituencies - Europe and the rest of the world - each one of which elects two Assembly members. The remaining 226 seats are allocated among the national territory constituencies in proportion to their number of registered electors.

Political parties and party coalitions may present lists of candidates. The lists are closed, so electors may not choose individual candidates in or alter the order of such lists. Electors cast a ballot for a single list. The seats in each constituency are divided among parties according to the largest average method of proportional representation (PR), conceived by the Belgian mathematician Victor d'Hondt in 1899. Although there is no statutory threshold for participation in the allocation of Assembly seats, there is an effective threshold at the constituency level that depends on the district magnitude.^[4] The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation method such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.^[5]

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.

National summary of votes and seats

e • d 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	96,096	1.68	N/A	N/A	1	N/A	0.44	N/A	0.39
	Revolutionary Socialist	64,159	1.12	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	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	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.[6] B People's Democratic Union electoral list only in Madeira and Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

Maps

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  Most voted political force by municipality.
  

  
  

  
  

References

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