The 1991 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. There was a reduction of 20 seats compared with previous elections, due to the 1989 Constitutional revision. For the first time in Portuguese democracy, an election was held after the four years of the legislature had been fully completed. The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of

Cavaco Silva The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese language, Portuguese) is a small Portugal, Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings. A cavaquinho player is called a ''cavaquista''. Tuning A common Mus ...

, won a historic third term and won an absolute majority for the second consecutive election. While it lost 13 MPs due to the reduction of the overall number from the original 250 to 230, although just a 3 seat loss if the 1987 election results are tabulated with the new seat distribution, it gained a higher share of the vote than in 1987.

became the first Prime Minister since Hintze Ribeiro, in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

, to lead a party into three successive democratic election victories. The Socialist Party, at the time led by

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. Sampaio was a member of the Socialist Party, a party which he ...

, the future

President of Portugal The president of Portugal, officially the president of the Portuguese Republic (, ), is the head of state and highest office of Portugal. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister ...

, increased its share by 7 percentage points and gained 12 MPs, a gain of 16 if compared with 1987 with the new seat distribution, but did not manage to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. Like four and six years earlier, and like 1979 and 1980, the PS failed to win a single district. In the first legislative election after the fall of the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

, the communist dominated

Democratic Unity Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition (, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party () and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates t ...

lost much of its electoral influence, losing almost 10 MPs and 4 points of the votes, but were able to hold on to the district of Beja by a slight margin over the PSD. On the right, the CDS could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of tactical voting for the Social Democratic Party by right-wing voters, 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.

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

fell to 67.8 percent, and for the first time below 70 percent of the electorate.

Background

Leadership changes and challenges

CDS 1988 leadership election

After CDS's poor results, just 4 percent, in the 1987 general elections, then CDS leader

Adriano Moreira Adriano José Alves Moreira, ComC GCC GOIH GCSE (6 September 1922 – 23 October 2022) was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and a leading political figure in Portugal throughout the second half of the 20th century. Education Adriano Moreira ...

announced he would leave the leadership and called a party congress to elect a new leader.

Diogo Freitas do Amaral Diogo Pinto de Freitas do Amaral (; 21 July 1941 – 3 October 2019) was a Portuguese politician and law professor. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 10 January 1980 to 12 January 1981 and from 12 March 2005 to 3 July 2006. He also serv ...

, former party leader and defeated candidate in the 1986 presidential election, returned to the party and was the sole candidate to the party's leadership. , - 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 ,

, colspan="2" align=right , ''

Voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "by live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by respondin ...

'' , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=right , 100.0 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

PS 1989 leadership election

In the 1987 general election the PS polled 2nd with just 22 percent, while the PSD won a historic absolute majority. Then party leader,

Vítor Constâncio Vítor Manuel Ribeiro Constâncio (born 12 October 1943) is a Portuguese economist and academic who most recently served as Vice President of the European Central Bank, from 2010 to 2018. He previously served as Minister of Finance in 1978 an ...

was facing pressures because of his strategy, with interferences also from

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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

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

, and, adding to this, his difficulty in finding a strong candidate for Lisbon to contest the 1989 local elections. Because of these pressures, Constâncio resign in late 1988 and a party congress to elect a new leader was called for mid January 1989. Two candidates were on the ballot,

and

Jaime Gama Jaime José de Matos da Gama (born 8 June 1947) is a Portugal, Portuguese former politician. In the Government of Portugal, Portuguese government, he served as Ministry of Internal Administration (Portugal), Minister of Internal Administration ...

. Sampaio was easily elected as PS leader. , - 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=center , WIN , align=right , , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=right , , align=right , , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

PRD 1991 leadership election

The Democratic Renewal Party's results in the 1987 election were disappointing and

António Ramalho Eanes António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes (born 25 January 1935) is a Portuguese general and politician who was the 16th president of Portugal from 1976 to 1986. Background Born at Alcains, Castelo Branco, he is the son of Manuel dos Santos Eanes, ...

resigned from the leadership.

Hermínio Martinho Hermínio Paiva Fernandes Martinho (born 23 March 1946) is a Portuguese agricultural engineer and politician, who was the first president of the Democratic Renewal Party (PRD). Early life Hermínio Martinho was born on 23 March 1946 in Tan ...

returned to the leadership, but the party was plagued by deep divisions on its ideology and strategy, with key members, including Ramalho Eanes, announcing their departure from the party In June 1991, the party held a leadership ballot between Hermínio Martinho and Pedro Canavarro. Martinho defended the dissolution of the party, while Canavarro proposed the continuation of the party. The ballot results gave Canavarro a landslide victory."Legislativas 91 – Parte IV" Minute 36:57
''RTP'', 6 October 1991. Retrieved 18 August 2022. 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 , Pedro Canavarro , align=right , 145 , align=right , 79.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=right , 38 , align=right , 20.8 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 183 , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. The total number of MPs was reduced in 1989, during the Constitutional amendments, to 230 from the previous 250. 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 or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

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

district magnitude An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. The use of the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

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

Hare quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...

Sainte-Laguë method The Webster method, also called the Sainte-Laguë method (), is a highest averages apportionment method for allocating seats in a parliament among federal states, or among parties in a party-list proportional representation system. The Sainte- ...

, which are more generous to small parties. For these elections, and compared with the 1987 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 5th legislature (1987–1991) and that also partook in the election:

With the 1987 seat distribution

Seat changes

* On December 1990, the 7 MPs of the Democratic Renewal Party left the party and decided to join 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 th ...

caucus, after a split with the party's leader, Pedro Canavarro. * Also on December 1990, the two MPs from the

Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" (, , PEV) is a Portugal, Portuguese Eco-socialism, eco-socialist List of political parties in Portugal, political party. It is a member of the European Green Party, European Greens and a founding member of the Eu ...

decided to dissolve their caucus and sit as Independents, following disagreements with the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

and defending an ecological party not aligned with the Communists.

1987 results with the new seat distribution

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

No debates between the main parties were held as the PSD leader and Prime Minister,

Aníbal Cavaco Silva Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist and politician who served as the 19th president of Portugal, from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016, and as prime minister of Portugal, from 6 November 1985 to 25 October ...

, refused to take part in any debate.

Opinion polling

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1987 and 1991 for reference. Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Results

National summary

, - , colspan=10, Portugal Parliament 1991

, - ! 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 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center,

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 1991 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , 2,902,351, , 50.60, , 0.4, , 148, , , 135, , 13, , 58.70, , 0.5 , - , , 1,670,758, , 29.13, , 6.9, , 60, , 72, , 12, , 31.30, , 7.3 , - , , 504,583, , 8.80, , 3.3, , 31, , 17, , 14, , 7.39, , 5.0 , - , , 254,317, , 4.43, , 0.0, , 4, , 5, , 1, , 2.17, , 0.6 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#000080 align="center" , , align=left, National Solidarity , 96,096, , 1.68, , , , , , 1, , , , 0.44, , , - , , 64,159, , 1.12, , 0.5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 48,542, , 0.85, , 0.5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 35,077, , 0.61, , 4.3, , 7, , 0, , 7, , 0.00, , 2.8 , - , , 25,216, , 0.44, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 10,842, , 0.19, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 6,661, , 0.12, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align=left, People's Democratic Union , 6,157, , 0.11, , 0.8, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,624,759 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 98.07 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.3 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 230 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 20 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 47,652, , 0.83, , 0.1, , colspan=5 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 63,020, , 1.10, , 0.2 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,735,431 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,462,357, , 67.78, , 3.8 , - , colspan=10 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 !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 ,

CDS CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to: Finance * Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company * Certificate of deposit (CDs) * Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...

!colspan=2 ,

PSN PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

, - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 64.1 , 4 , 25.8 , 1 , 1.3 , - , 3.4 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 58.6 , 9 , 27.8 , 4 , 2.8 , - , 6.1 , 1 , 1.3 , - , 14 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 29.3 , 1 , 28.4 , 1 , style="background:red; color:white;", 30.4 , 2 , 2.3 , - , 1.0 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 53.6 , 10 , 31.5 , 5 , 4.6 , - , 5.6 , 1 , 0.8 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Bragança Bragança may refer to: People *Jaime Celestino Dias Bragança, a Portuguese footballer Politics and History *House of Bragança - A Portuguese Royal House *Duke of Bragança - A Portuguese noble, and later royal, title * Bragança - One of the m ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 57.9 , 3 , 25.7 , 1 , 2.1 , - , 8.2 , - , 1.5 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 51.8 , 3 , 32.4 , 2 , 4.6 , - , 3.9 , - , 2.3 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 49.9 , 6 , 34.4 , 4 , 5.0 , - , 3.5 , - , 1.7 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Évora Évora ( , ), officially the Very Noble and Ever Loyal City of Évora (), is a city and a municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of . It is the historic capital of the Alentejo reg ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 35.0 , 2 , 25.9 , 1 , 27.1 , 1 , 2.8 , - , 1.4 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 50.8 , 5 , 31.2 , 3 , 7.2 , - , 2.8 , - , 2.2 , - , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Guarda Guarda may refer to: * Guarda, Portugal, city in Portugal * Guarda District, the district containing that city * Roman Catholic Diocese of Guarda, Portugal, the diocese containing that city * Guarda, Switzerland, municipality in Grisons, Switzerlan ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 58.6 , 3 , 26.8 , 1 , 2.3 , - , 5.9 , - , 1.3 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 61.2 , 7 , 23.0 , 3 , 4.5 , - , 4.8 , - , 1.4 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 45.3 , 25 , 29.7 , 16 , 12.2 , 6 , 4.0 , 2 , 2.6 , 1 , 50 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 62.4 , 4 , 20.2 , 1 , 1.0 , - , 6.1 , - , 1.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 38.9 , 2 , 33.5 , 1 , 15.2 , - , 3.3 , - , 1.8 , - , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 51.3 , 21 , 32.9 , 13 , 6.4 , 2 , 4.1 , 1 , 1.1 , - , 37 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Santarém Santarém may refer to: Places * Santarém, Pará, Brazil * Santarém District, a district in Portugal * Santarém, Portugal, Capital of the Ribatejo province * Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarém, Portugal Other * Santarém cheese, a Portuguese g ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 49.1 , 6 , 29.4 , 3 , 9.8 , 1 , 3.3 , - , 2.2 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 34.7 , 6 , 28.4 , 5 , 24.9 , 5 , 2.7 , - , 2.4 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a concelho, municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo District, Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2021 was 85,778, in an area of . The urbanized are ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 56.9 , 4 , 25.2 , 2 , 5.0 , - , 7.2 , - , 1.2 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the Norte, Portugal, North region, Portugal. It is also the seat of the Douro (intermunicipal community), Douro Intermunicipal communities of Portugal, intermunicipal comm ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 60.6 , 4 , 26.0 , 2 , 2.6 , - , 5.1 , - , 1.2 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the Viseu District, district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões Interm ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 64.3 , 7 , 19.4 , 2 , 2.1 , - , 6.3 , - , 1.3 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 53.7 , 1 , 31.9 , 1 , 7.8 , - , 3.0 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 77.3 , 2 , 4.9 , - , 1.0 , - , 14.6 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 50.6 , 135 , 29.1 , 72 , 8.8 , 17 , 4.4 , 5 , 1.7 , 1 , 230 , - , colspan=12 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:1991 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg, Winner and seats by constituency. File:Legislativas portuguesas de 1991 (Mapa).png, Most voted political force by

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

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político