Portuguese legislative election, 1987

Portuguese legislative election, 1987

19 July 1987

250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Vítor Constâncio Party PSD PS Leader since 2 June 1985 29 June 1986 Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2] Last election 88 seats, 29.9% 57 seats, 20.8% Seats won 148 60 Seat change 60 3 Popular vote 2,850,784 1,262,506 Percentage 50.2% 22.2% Swing 20.3% 1.4%

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 1987 took place on 19 July. In the previous election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had won a minority government managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic and Social Center and the Democratic Renewal Party, and after the approval of a no-confidence motion from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renewal Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

The PSD was very popular going into the election, and was elected to a landslide majority government—the biggest that a Portuguese party had ever won in a free election. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition lost some of its MPs to the Socialist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party lost almost all of its influence, mainly due to its responsibility in the fall of the former government. The right-wing Democratic and Social Center lost almost half of its vote share, due to the effect of tactical voting for the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party. European elections were held on the same day.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
• Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• Democratic and Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

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 1985 and 1987 for reference.

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 19 July 1987 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1985	1987	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	2,850,784	50.22	20.3	88	148	60	59.20	24.0	1.18
	Socialist	1,262,506	22.24	1.4	57	60	3	24.00	1.2	1.08
	Democratic Unity Coalition[A][B]	689,137	12.14	3.4	38	31	7	12.40	2.8	1.02
	Democratic Renewal	278,561	4.91	13.0	45	7	38	2.80	15.2	0.57
	Democratic and Social Centre	251,987	4.44	5.6	22	4	18	1.60	7.2	0.36
	People's Democratic Union	50,717	0.89	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	32,977	0.58	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	32,607	0.57	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Christian Democratic Party	31,667	0.56	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist Party	23,218	0.41	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Workers' Communist Party	20,800	0.37	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Communist Party (Reconstructed)	18,544	0.33	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	9,185	0.16	0.6	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,552,690	97.82	0.3	250	250	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		50,135	0.88	0.1
Invalid ballots		73,533	1.30	0.4
Total (turnout 71.57%)		5,676,358	100.00	2.6
A In 1985, as United People Alliance. B Portuguese Communist Party (29 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[3]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

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

Elections and referendums in Portugal
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