Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 8 June 1958, during the authoritarian Estado Novo regime led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the r ...

. Incumbent

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Francisco Craveiro Lopes Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes (; 12 April 1894 – 2 September 1964) was a Portuguese Air Force officer and politician who served as the 12th president of Portugal from 1951 to 1958. Early life and career Born in Lisbon, he was a son of ...

had clashed with Salazar and did not seek another term, either as candidate of the regime or for the opposition, which deemed the incumbent president capable of winning the race. In Craveiro Lopes' place, the National Union, the sole legal political party, levied naval minister

Américo Thomaz Domingo Jhonny Vega Urzúa (born December 24, 1977, in Arica, Chile), commonly known as Américo, is a Chilean singer. He became known as the lead artist of Américo y la Nueva Alegría. He is the son of a locally known boleros singer, Melvin ...

, a conservative. The democratic opposition backed Air Force General

Humberto Delgado Humberto da Silva Delgado, ComC, GCA, GOA, ComA, OA, ComSE, GCL, OIP, CBE (Portuguese pronunciation: �ˈbɛɾtu dɛɫˈɡadu 15 May 1906 – 13 February 1965) was a General of the Portuguese Air Force, diplomat and politician. Early life ...

, who ran as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

in an attempt to challenge the regime. When asked if he would retain Salazar if elected, Delgado famously replied, "Obviously, I'll sack him." Delgado knew that under Portugal's corporatist constitution, the president still had the right to dismiss the prime minister, which was effectively the only check on Salazar's power. The official tally was 76.4 percent for Thomaz and 23.6 percent for Delgado. The regime's

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of ...

force,

PIDE The International and State Defense Police ( pt, Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of th ...

, harassed and attacked Delgado voters and supporters, and there were many reports of widespread electoral fraud. For example, Salazar refused to allow opposition representatives to observe the counting of ballots. Many neutral observers believe that Delgado would have won in a landslide had Salazar allowed an honest election. Nevertheless, the results came as a shock to Salazar. Leaving nothing to chance, in 1959 he had the Constitution amended to transfer the presidential election to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

, which was a pliant tool of the regime. As a result, the 1958 election would be the only presidential election under the ''Estado Novo'' in which an opposition candidate actually stayed in the race until election day. In previous years, when the regime's candidate faced any opposition at all, any candidates put forward by the opposition were intimidated into withdrawing before the polls opened. Universal suffrage was not reintroduced until after the Carnation Revolution and the return of democracy in 1974.

Official Results

, - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan="2" rowspan="2", Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left rowspan="2", Supporting parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right colspan="2", First round , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=blue align="center" , , align=left, Americo Thomaz , align=left, National Union , align="right" , 765,081 , align="right" , 76.42 , - , style="width: 8px" bgcolor=#777777 align="center" , , align=left,

, align=left,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, align="right" , 236,057 , align="right" , 23.58 , - , style="width: 5px" style="background-color:red;text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;", ~~Arlindo Vicente~~ , style="text-align:left;", Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portu ...
, colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , ''left the race'' , - , colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,001,138 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , - , align=right colspan="3", Blank/Invalid ballots , width="65" align="right" , , width="40" align="right" , , - , colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,001,138 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 77.32 , - , colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Registered voters , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 1,294,779 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=5 style="text-align:left;", Candidate left the race in favour of Humberto Delgado. , - , colspan=5 align=left, Source
Fórum HistóriaElections in Portugal

Official Results

References

See also