Portuguese legislative election, 1991

1987 ←

October 6, 1991

→ 1995

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	Jorge Sampaio
Party	Social Democratic	Socialist
Leader since	2 June 1985	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

Cavaco Silva
Social Democratic

Prime Minister-elect

Cavaco Silva
Social Democratic

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. 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.

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 Democratic and Social Centre could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of the useful vote by the right-wing voters in the Social Democratic Party, 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.

1 Parties
2 Opinion Polling
3 National summary of votes and seats
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

Parties [edit]

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
Democratic and Social Centre (CDS), Manuel Monteiro

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

Opinion Polling [edit]

Date Released	Institute	Social Democratic	Socialist	Green-Communist	Democratic and Social Centre	Lead
October 6, 1991	Election Results	50.6% 135 seats	29.1% 72 seats	8.8% 17 seats	4.4% 5 seats	21.5%
September 28, 1991	Euroteste	47.3%	35.5%	8.5%	4.1%	11.8%
September 28, 1991	Euroteste	46.0%	37.0%	9.7%	3.9%	9.0%
September 28, 1991	Euroespansão	44.0%	33.0%	9.0%	6.0%	11.0%
September 27, 1991	Marktest	43.1%	32.8%	7.7%	4.6%	10.3%
September 27, 1991	Pluriteste	41.2%	34.7%	8.4%	8.1%	6.5%
September 20, 1991	Euroteste	45.6%	35.5%	10.0%	10.4%	10.1%
September 14, 1991	Norma	45.0%	37.5%	11.2%	3.5%	7.7%
July 19, 1987	1987 election	50.2% 148 seats	22.2% 60 seats	12.1% 31 seats	4.4% 4 seats	28.0%

National summary of votes and seats [edit]

e • d **Summary of the 6 October 1991 Assembly of the Republic elections results**
Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
Parties		Votes	%	±	1987	1991	±	%	±	MPs %/ votes %
	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	—	—	1	—	0.44	—	0.39
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	64,159	1.12	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	PCTP/MRPP	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	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Left Revolutionary Front	6,661	0.12	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	People's Democratic Union	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]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

References [edit]

External links [edit]

See also [edit]

v t e Elections and referendums in Portugal

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