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 who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

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 is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

parties, which led them to be the favourites to win the election. With just over 40 percent of the votes cast, the Social Democrats regained the status as the largest political force in Portugal, although the Socialists won almost 38 percent of the vote. This was the closest legislative election in Portuguese democracy until

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. 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 ( ; ) 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 ...

and

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 ...

. 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

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

Background

After the disappointing results of the Socialist Party (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: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

led to controversial, and weird, alliances, like the 2000 and 2001 budgets which were approved by a sole CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) Member of Parliament, Daniel Campelo, 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, in the district of Viana do Castelo (district), Viana do Castelo. Situated on the southern bank of the Lima River, it takes its name from the medieval br ...

, in Viana do Castelo district.

Government fall

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

Sintra Sintra (, ), officially the Town of Sintra (), is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2021 was 385,654, in an area of . Sintra is one of the ...

and

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 ...

to the Social Democratic Party. Due to this surprising defeat,

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

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

Jorge Sampaio accepted Guterres resignation and called snap elections for March 2002.

Leadership changes and challenges

PSD 2000 leadership election

After the 1999 election defeat, Durão Barroso'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 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 , align=right , 469 , align=right , 50.3 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Pedro Santana Lopes , 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, 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 percent 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 , Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues , 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 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 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:

Seat changes

* On 7 November 2000, MP Daniel Campelo, elected in the CDS – People's Party list for

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 ...

, left the party and became an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

, following a split with CDS–PP regarding his votes in favour of

government's State budgets.

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. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1999 and 2002 for reference.

Voter turnout

The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas. Due to lack of data from the 1999 election, it's not possible to compare the turnout throughout election day between the two elections.

Results

National summary

, - , colspan=10, 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 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center,

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

! 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 , - , , 2,068,584, , 37.79, , 6.3, , 115, , 96, , 19, , 41.74, , 8.3 , - , , 477,350, , 8.72, , 0.4, , 15, , 14, , 1, , 6.09, , 0.4 , - , , 379,870, , 6.94, , 2.1, , 17, , 12, , 5, , 5.22, , 2.2 , - , , 149,966, , 2.74, , 0.3, , 2, , 3, , 1, , 1.30, , 0.4 , - , , 36,193, , 0.66, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 15,540, , 0.28, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 12,398, , 0.23, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 11,472, , 0.21, , 0.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , , 4,712, , 0.09, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , , 4,316, , 0.08, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#8b0000 align="center" , , align=left, Left Bloc/ People's Democratic Union , 3,911, , 0.07, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#000080 align="center" , , align=left, National Solidarity , 0, , 0.00, , 0.2, , 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", 5,365,881 , 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 , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 55,121, , 1.01, , 0.1, , colspan=5 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=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 , CDS–PP !colspan=2 , CDU !colspan=2 , BE , - , 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;", 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 (; ) 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;", 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 ( , ), 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 ...

, 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 () 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;", 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 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;", 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 ( , , ; ), 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 ...

, 24.7 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 39.3 , 7 , 6.9 , 1 , 20.5 , 4 , 4.6 , - , 17 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 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 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;", 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 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;", 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

File:2002 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg, Winner and seats by constituency. Legislativas portuguesas de 2002 (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' ...

Aftermath

After the elections, PSD and CDS–PP formed a coalition government, the first since the Democratic Alliance (AD) in the early 1980's. This government was marked by the fragile fiscal and economic situation of the country and the 2003 Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal. During this government, Portugal became a major ally in the

War in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. , style="background:#F88" , Coalition of Gulf War, Coalition victory * Kuwait, State of Kuwait resumes self-governance over all Kuwaiti sovereign territory * Esta ...

, even hosting a summit at Lajes Field, in the

, between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, which divided public opinion. In the 2004 European Parliament election in Portugal, the PSD/CDS–PP coalition '' Força Portugal'' suffered a big defeat by gathering just 33 percent of the votes, against the 44 percent of the Socialist Party. A few days later, José Manuel Durão Barroso announced he was resigning from the post of Prime Minister in order to become

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission, also known as president of the College of Commissioners is the Head of government, head of the European Commission, the Executive (government), executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president ...

. Despite pleas for a snap legislative election from Opposition parties,

Jorge Sampaio decided to nominate the new PSD leader, Pedro Santana Lopes as Prime Minister.

Fall of the government

Santana Lopes government was marked with deep disagreements and disputes within his own party, the Social Democratic Party, which began to damage the government's actions. One of these disputes was the resignation of Youth and Sports Minister, Henrique Chaves, which was a close ally of Santana. This resignation precipitated the fall of the government, with Chaves accusing Santana of not being "loyal and truthful". Just five months after swearing in Santana Lopes as Prime Minister,

Jorge Sampaio gave a speech in which he accused the government of "contradictions and lack of coordination that contributed to its discredit", and used his power of dissolution of

and called a snap election, so far the only time till date such power was used in Portuguese democracy by a President. Santana Lopes disagreed with the President's decision but respected it and announced his resignation. A new election was called, by the President, for 20 February 2005."Jorge Sampaio assinou hoje decreto de dissolução do Parlamento "
''Público'', 22 December 2004. Retrieved 23 October 2022.

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político