1991 Portuguese legislative election

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.

1991 Portuguese legislative election
6 October 1991
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Registered8,462,357 6.7%
Turnout5,735,431 (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:
Politics and government of
Portugal
Portugal

The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the future President of Portugal, increased its 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 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.[4]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[5] 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.[6]

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

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

Campaign period

Party slogans
Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs
PSD « No bom caminho » "On the right track" [7]
PS « Agora nós » "Now us." [8]
CDU « Para um Portugal melhor » "For a better Portugal" [9]
CDS « A verdade, sempre! » "The truth, always!" [10]

Candidates' debates

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.[11]

Opinion polling
See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll

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
19 Jul Norma 43.7 32.9 12.4 6.5 4.5 10.8
19 Jul Euroteste 45.4 36.6 10.8 4.0 3.2 8.8
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 2,902,35150.600.41481351358.700.51.16
Socialist 1,670,75829.136.960721231.307.31.07
Democratic Unity Coalition[A] 504,5838.803.33117147.395.00.84
Democratic and Social Centre 254,3174.430.04512.170.60.49
National Solidarity 96,0961.68N/AN/A1N/A0.44N/A0.39
Revolutionary Socialist 64,1591.120.50000.000.00.0
Portuguese Workers' Communist 48,5420.850.50000.000.00.0
Democratic Renewal 35,0770.614.37070.002.80.0
People's Monarchist 25,2160.440.00000.000.00.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic 10,8420.19N/AN/A0N/A0.00N/A0.0
Left Revolutionary Front 6,6610.12N/AN/A0N/A0.00N/A0.0
People's Democratic Union[B] 6,1570.110.80000.000.00.0
Total valid 5,624,759 98.07 0.3 250 230 20 100.00 0.0 —
Blank ballots 47,6520.830.1
Invalid ballots 63,0201.100.2
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.[12]
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%
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
 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
EvoraÉvora 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
zEurope 53.7 1 31.9 1 7.8 - 3.0 - 2
zRest 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

Maps

References
  1. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  2. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  3. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  4. "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  5. "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  6. Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  7. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  8. "Campanha eleitoral do PS". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  9. "Campanha eleitoral da CDU". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  10. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1991 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  11. "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  12. "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-02.

See also
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