Manuel Quintão Meireles

Manuel Quintão Meireles (14 December 1880 – 11 March 1962) was a Portuguese Navy officer and a politician. He initially supported the Military Dictatorship, after the 28 May 1926 revolution, but later moved to the Democratic Opposition side. In 1951, he was the moderate candidate at the presidential elections against the regime candidate, General Francisco Craveiro Lopes, but he withdraw three days before for not having been presented the minimal acceptable conditions of a fair dispute and realizing that remaining in a contest that he had no fair chance to win would in fact contribute to ongoing legitimization of the regime.