The 2005 Portuguese legislative election took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. These elections were called after the decision of

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 ...

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. A member of the Socialist Party, a party which he led between 1989 a ...

on 30 November 2004 to dissolve the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by

Pedro Santana Lopes Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes GCC (; born 29 June 1956) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who is the current president of the Municipal Chamber of Figueira da Foz. He most notably served as prime minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005. ...

(

PSD PSD may refer to: Educational bodies * Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, a Pre-K to 12th grade school for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Philippine School Doha, a Filipino scho ...

) in coalition with the PP. Santana Lopes had become Prime Minister in July 2004, after

José Manuel Durão Barroso José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

left the country in order to become President of the European Commission in a decision that divided the country, because many Portuguese were expecting that the Socialist President

would dissolve the Parliament and call a legislative election. However, after five unstable months, President Sampaio decided to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections. The Prime Minister nevertheless announced the resignation of the government on 11 December, in an action with no practical effects whatsoever. The campaign started officially on 6 February and the major topics were the problematic state of the country's finances,

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

and even

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he ...

's alleged homosexuality. Headed by Sócrates, the centre-left

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

(PS) won the election with a landslide victory, winning in 19 of the 22 electoral constituencies, including in districts such as

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...

and Bragança that historically voted for the right. The Socialist Party conquered its first absolute majority, receiving 45% of the electorate vote and 52% of the seats in the Parliament, making this the Socialists' largest ever victory in terms of vote percentage and seat count as of 2022. The centre-right parties, mainly the Social Democrats, were punished for their performance in government, and lost more than 11% of votes they had garnered in the previous election. On the left, the Left Bloc achieved its best result ever and made the biggest climb, gaining 5 MPs, while the CDU (Communists and the Greens) gained 2 MPs and reversed their downward trend of the last elections.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was the highest since

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, as 64.3% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Background

Fall of the government

Deep disagreements and disputes within the Social Democratic Party began to derail the government led by

. One of those disputes, the resignation of Youth and Sports Minister, Henrique Chaves, which was a close ally of Santana, precipitated the fall of the government, as Chaves accused Santana of not being "loyal and truthful". Following this,

had "enough" of crisis and accused the government of "contradictions and lack of coordination that contributed to its discredit". Therefore, Sampaio used his power of dissolution of

and called a snap election, the only time till date such power was used in Portuguese democracy. A new election was called, by the President, for February 2005.

Leadership changes

PS 2004 leadership election

On early July 2004, PS leader

Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues Eduardo Luís Barreto Ferro Rodrigues (born 3 November 1949) is a Portuguese politician and economist who had been President of the Assembly of the Republic since 2015 until 29 March 2022, in the 13th (2015–2019) and 14th Legislatures (201 ...

resigned from the leadership against President

decision to nominate

as Prime Minister, following the resignation of Durão Barroso, rather than calling a snap legislative election. New elections to select a new leader were called for 25 and 26 September 2004. Former environment minister

, Manuel Alegre and the son of former President

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th pres ...

, João Soares, contested the leadership ballot. José Sócrates was elected by a landslide and the results were the following: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=right , 18,432 , align=right , 78.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Manuel Alegre , align=right , 3,903 , align=right , 16.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , João Soares , align=right , 927 , align=right , 4.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 175 , align=right , 0.7 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 23,437 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results

PCP 2004 leadership election

In the fall of 2004, PCP leader Carlos Carvalhas decided to step down from the party's leadership after 12 years in the post. Jerónimo de Sousa was selected as candidate for the leadership and was elected in the party's congress during the weekend of 27 and 28 November 2004. The results were the following: , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=#f00, , align=left , Jerónimo de Sousa , align=right , 164 , align=right , 93.7 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Against , align=right , 1 , align=right , 0.6 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Abstention , align=right , 10 , align=right , 5.7 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 175 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. 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 A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

to be approved. The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the

district magnitude An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

. The use of the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...

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.Gallaher, Michael (1992).
Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities
For these elections, and compared with the 2002 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 9th legislature (2002–2005) and that also partook in the election:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polling

National summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=11, Portugal Parliament 2005

, - ! rowspan=2 colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Parties ! rowspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Votes ! rowspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! rowspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , MPs ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , MPs %/
votes % , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , 2002 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" , 2005 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , ± , - , , 2,588,312, , 45.03, , 7.2, , 96, , 121, , 25, , 52.61, , 10.9, , 1.17 , - , , 1,653,425, , 28.77, , 11.4, , 105, , 75, , 30, , 32.61, , 13.0, , 1.13 , - , , 433,369, , 7.54, , 0.6, , 12, , 14, , 2, , 6.09, , 0.9, , 0.81 , - , , 416,415, , 7.25, , 1.5, , 14, , 12, , 2, , 5.22, , 0.9, , 0.72 , - , , 364,971, , 6.35, , 3.6, , 3, , 8, , 5, , 3.48, , 2.2, , 0.55 , - , , 48,186, , 0.84, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 40,358, , 0.70, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 17,056, , 0.30, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 9,374, , 0.16, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , style="width:10px;background-color:red;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Workers Party of Socialist Unity , 5,535, , 0.10, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 1,618, , 0.03, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,578,782 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 97.06 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 1.0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", — , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 103,537, , 1.80, , 0.8, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 65,515, , 1.14, , 0.2 , - , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,747,834 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,944,508, , 64.26, , 2.8 , - , colspan=11 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 ,

!colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 , CDS-PP !colspan=2 , BE , - , align="left",

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 53.1 , 3 , 34.4 , 2 , 1.7 , - , 4.0 , - , 2.9 , - , 5 , - , align="left", Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 41.1 , 8 , 35.7 , 6 , 3.5 , - , 9.8 , 1 , 5.1 , - , 15 , - , align="left", Beja , style="background:; color:white;", 51.0 , 2 , 12.3 , - , 24.1 , 1 , 2.9 , - , 4.7 , - , 3 , - , align="left",

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 45.4 , 9 , 32.9 , 7 , 4.8 , 1 , 7.8 , 1 , 4.6 , - , 18 , - , align="left", Bragança , style="background:; color:white;", 42.1 , 2 , 39.0 , 2 , 2.0 , - , 9.7 , - , 2.5 , - , 4 , - , align="left", Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 56.0 , 4 , 26.7 , 1 , 3.8 , - , 5.3 , - , 3.7 , - , 5 , - , align="left",

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 45.4 , 6 , 31.9 , 4 , 5.5 , - , 5.5 , - , 6.3 , - , 10 , - , align="left",

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 49.7 , 2 , 16.7 , - , 20.9 , 1 , 3.7 , - , 4.6 , - , 3 , - , align="left", Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 49.3 , 6 , 24.6 , 2 , 6.9 , - , 5.8 , - , 7.7 , - , 8 , - , align="left", Guarda , style="background:; color:white;", 46.8 , 2 , 34.7 , 2 , 2.9 , - , 7.0 , - , 3.4 , - , 4 , - , align="left", Leiria , 35.6 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 39.8 , 5 , 4.6 , - , 8.9 , 1 , 5.5 , - , 10 , - , align="left", Lisbon , style="background:; color:white;", 44.1 , 23 , 23.7 , 12 , 9.8 , 5 , 8.2 , 4 , 8.8 , 4 , 48 , - , align="left", Madeira , 35.0 , 3 , style="background:; color:white;", 45.2 , 3 , 3.6 , - , 6.6 , - , 3.8 , - , 6 , - , align="left", Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 54.9 , 2 , 20.2 , - , 12.1 , - , 4.2 , - , 4.6 , - , 2 , - , align="left",

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 48.5 , 20 , 27.8 , 12 , 5.4 , 2 , 6.9 , 2 , 6.7 , 2 , 38 , - , align="left", Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 46.1 , 6 , 26.4 , 3 , 8.6 , 1 , 6.9 , - , 6.5 , - , 10 , - , align="left",

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 43.6 , 8 , 16.1 , 3 , 20.0 , 3 , 5.1 , 1 , 10.3 , 2 , 17 , - , align="left",

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 88,725, in an area of 319.02 km². The urbanized area of the municipality, comprising the city, ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 42.0 , 3 , 33.5 , 2 , 3.8 , - , 11.4 , 1 , 4.5 , - , 6 , - , align="left",

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality cover ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 43.8 , 3 , 40.2 , 2 , 2.6 , - , 6.8 , - , 2.4 , - , 5 , - , align="left",

, style="background:; color:white;", 40.4 , 4 , 40.2 , 4 , 2.2 , - , 8.6 , 1 , 3.3 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 54.3 , 1 , 27.2 , 1 , 4.2 , - , 3.4 , - , 2.3 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , 26.3 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 57.7 , 2 , 1.0 , - , 3.5 , - , 0.7 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , align="left", Total , style="background:; color:white;", 45.0 , 121 , 28.8 , 75 , 7.5 , 14 , 7.2 , 12 , 6.4 , 8 , 230 , - , colspan=12 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Legislativas portuguesas de 2005 (Mapa).png, Most voted political force by

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. CDU electoral results 2005.png, Share of vote for CDU by district.

Graphics

Portugal federal elections 2005 - seats.svg, Seats won by party. Portugal parliamentary elections 2005 - party list seats gains and losts.svg, Gains and losses by party. Portugal parliamentary elections 2005.svg, Share of vote by party.

Notes

References

External links

Preliminary results of the 2005 election

Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker