The 2002 Portuguese legislative election took place on 17 March. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. These elections were called after the resignation of the then incumbent Prime Minister,

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Soci ...

after the defeat of the Socialist Party in the 2001 local elections. That fact, plus the problematic state of the country's finances were the main arguments of the

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

parties, which led them to be the favourites to win the election. With just over 40% of the votes cast, the Social Democrats regained the status as the largest political force in Portugal, although the Socialists won almost 38% of the vote. This was, and still is, the smallest difference between the two major parties in Portugal. This short distance also appears on the electoral map, with each party winning eleven of the 22 districts, while the PS won the most populous,

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

and

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 metropo ...

. As a result, the Social Democrats fail to win the absolute majority they had between 1987 and 1995. As no Party got an absolute majority, the Social Democrats formed a coalition with the right-wing People's Party. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition achieved the lowest result ever, finishing in the third place in its traditional strongholds, Évora and Setúbal. The Left Bloc gained one MP. Turnout was slightly higher than it was in 1999 but remained quite low, marking a growing separation between the politics and the Portuguese people, mainly due to the image of the politicians as corrupts and the idea that all the parties are the same.

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 slightly higher than in 1999, as 61.5% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Background

Fall of the government

After the disappointing results of the

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 ...

(PS) in the 1999 elections, the PS government entered in a series of crisis. Resignations of ministers from government and incapacity of passing legislation in

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 ...

led to controversial, and weird, alliances, like the 2000 and 2001 budgets which were approved by a sole

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party ( pt, CDS – Partido Popular, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

(CDS–PP) Member of Parliament,

Daniel Campelo Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength ...

, in exchange for the government approving a cheese factory in Campelo's hometown,

Ponte de Lima Ponte de Lima () is the oldest ''vila'' (chartered town, head of a municipality) in Portugal. It is part of the district of Viana do Castelo. The population in 2011 was 43,498, in an area of 320.25 km2. The town proper has about 2,800 inhabi ...

. The Socialist Party suffered a big, and unexpected, defeat in the December 2001 local elections. The party lost major cities across the country, mainly

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populate ...

and

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 ...

to the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. Due to this surprising defeat,

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 is ...

announced he was to tender his resignation as Prime Minister in order to avoid the country falling "into a political swamp". Shortly after,

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 ...

accepted Guterres resignation and called snap elections for March 2002.

Leadership changes

PSD 2000 leadership election

After the 1999 election defeat,

Durão Barroso Durão is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Joaquim Durão (1930–2015), Portuguese chess player * Nuno Durão (born 1962), Portuguese rugby union footballer and coach * Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784), orator and poet, cre ...

's leadership started to be challenged and criticized. In January 2000, Durão Barroso called a snap party congress to resolve the leadership dispute. Alongside Barroso,

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. ...

and Luís Marques Mendes also ran. Durão Barroso was reelected as PSD leader 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=orange, , align=left ,

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 ...

, align=right , 469 , align=right , 50.3 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left ,

, align=right , 313 , align=right , 33.6 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Luís Marques Mendes , align=right , 150 , align=right , 16.1 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 932 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Results

PS 2002 leadership election

Following the resignation of

and PS leader, the party started the process to elect a new leader. The popular minister in Guterres cabinet,

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 ...

, and PS member Paulo Penedos, were the two candidates on the ballot. Around 121,000 PS members were registered to vote. In the end, Ferro Rodrigues got almost unanimous support by being elected with almost 97% of the votes. 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 , , align=right , 96.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Paulo Penedos , align=right , , align=right , 2.7 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , , align=right , 0.8 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , 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 mana ...

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 pol ...

. 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 highes ...

makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the

Hare quota The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. T ...

or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties. For these elections, and compared with the 1999 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 8th legislature (1999–2002) and that also partook in the election:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polling

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed were represented in parliament (1999-2002). Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1999 and 2002 for reference.

National summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=11, Portugal Parliament 2002

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left, Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" 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,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 2002 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , 2,200,765, , 40.21, , 7.9, , 81, , 105, , 24, , 45.65, , 10.4, , 1.14 , - , , 2,068,584, , 37.79, , 6.3, , 115, , 96, , 19, , 41.74, , 8.3, , 1.10 , - , , 477,350, , 8.72, , 0.4, , 15, , 14, , 1, , 6.09, , 0.4, , 0.70 , - , , 379,870, , 6.94, , 2.1, , 17, , 12, , 5, , 5.22, , 2.2, , 0.75 , - , , 149,966, , 2.74, , 0.3, , 2, , 3, , 1, , 1.30, , 0.4, , 0.47 , - , , 36,193, , 0.66, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 15,540, , 0.28, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 12,398, , 0.23, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 11,472, , 0.21, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 4,712, , 0.09, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 4,316, , 0.08, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#8b0000 align="center" , , align=left, Left Bloc/ People's Democratic Union , 3,911, , 0.07, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#000080 align="center" , , align=left, National Solidarity"Josué, o "Marquês de Pombal" do PSN em Vila Real "
''Público'', 19 March 2002. Retrieved 25 June 2022. , 0, , 0.00, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,365,881 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 98.03 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", — , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 55,121, , 1.01, , 0.1, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 52,653, , 0.96, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,473,655 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,902,713, , 61.48, , 0.4 , - , colspan=11 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" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 ,

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 ...

!colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , CDS–PP !colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 , BE , - , style="text-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;", 45.4 , 3 , 41.0 , 2 , 8.4 , - , 1.4 , - , 1.4 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 46.4 , 8 , 33.5 , 5 , 12.9 , 2 , 2.6 , - , 1.8 , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 21.2 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 43.5 , 2 , 3.7 , - , 24.2 , 1 , 1.9 , - , 3 , - , style="text-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;", 44.4 , 9 , 37.4 , 8 , 9.3 , 1 , 4.4 , - , 1.7 , - , 18 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , style="background:; color:white;", 53.2 , 3 , 30.0 , 1 , 10.9 , - , 1.9 , - , 0.9 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , 38.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 46.1 , 3 , 7.1 , - , 3.3 , - , 1.5 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 41.0 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 41.3 , 5 , 6.7 , - , 5.1 , - , 2.4 , - , 10 , - , style="text-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 ...

, 25.3 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.8 , 1 , 4.6 , - , 21.8 , 1 , 1.8 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , 37.7 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 40.5 , 4 , 8.3 , - , 6.3 , - , 2.8 , - , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:; color:white;", 48.5 , 2 , 34.7 , 2 , 9.6 , - , 2.2 , - , 1.2 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own dist ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 50.8 , 6 , 29.5 , 3 , 9.8 , 1 , 4.1 , - , 2.2 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 35.7 , 18 , style="background:; color:white;", 38.7 , 20 , 8.5 , 4 , 8.8 , 4 , 4.7 , 2 , 48 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 53.5 , 4 , 25.8 , 1 , 12.1 , - , 2.5 , - , 3.1 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , 30.6 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 45.2 , 2 , 6.4 , - , 12.4 , - , 1.6 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 40.0 , 16 , style="background:; color:white;", 41.2 , 17 , 8.4 , 3 , 4.6 , 1 , 2.7 , 1 , 38 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , 38.1 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 38.4 , 4 , 8.4 , 1 , 8.6 , 1 , 2.9 , - , 10 , - , style="text-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 t ...

, 24.7 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 39.3 , 7 , 6.9 , 1 , 20.5 , 4 , 4.6 , - , 17 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Viana do Castelo , style="background:; color:white;", 45.5 , 3 , 35.3 , 3 , 10.3 , - , 3.5 , - , 1.8 , - , 6 , - , style="text-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;", 54.1 , 3 , 31.9 , 2 , 8.1 , - , 2.0 , - , 0.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 52.1 , 5 , 31.1 , 3 , 10.6 , 1 , 1.5 , - , 1.4 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , 36.9 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.1 , 1 , 5.0 , - , 4.8 , - , 1.1 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 66.3 , 2 , 21.5 , - , 3.4 , - , 0.9 , - , 0.4 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 40.2 , 105 , 37.8 , 96 , 8.7 , 14 , 6.9 , 12 , 2.7 , 3 , 230 , - , colspan=12 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Legislativas portuguesas de 2002 (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 ...

Notes

References

External links

Preliminary results of the 2002 electionComissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político