Portuguese legislative election, 1979

Portuguese legislative election, 1979

2 December 1979
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Francisco Sá Carneiro Mário Soares Party AD PS Leader since 29 April 1979 19 April 1973 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 115 seats, 40.9%1 107 seats, 34.9% Seats won 128 74 Seat change 13 33 Popular vote 2,719,208 1,642,136 Percentage 45.3% 27.3% Swing 4.4% 7.6%
The first and the second most voted parties in each district (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Prime Minister before election Pintasilgo PS Elected Prime Minister Sá Carneiro PSD

Portugal

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

The Portuguese legislative election of 1979 took place on 2 December. The last election, three and a half years before, in April 1976, was won by the Socialist Party under the lead of Mário Soares, who became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government after the revolution. However, the government suffered several attacks and in December 1977, Soares lost the voting of a confidence resolution because all the opposition, the Democratic and Social Center, the Social Democrats and the Communists united in order to vote against it, and so, the Soares' government fell. Soares would become Prime-Minister again in January 1978, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center, but in July this party would force the end of the government due to disagreements about agrarian reform. In August, Nobre da Costa became Prime-Minister by personal decision of the President of President Ramalho Eanes, after a failed attempt to unite the parties on the Parliament. However, the program of Nobre da Costa's government was never approved and two months later, da Costa was replaced by Mota Pinto who would govern with extreme difficulties for less than one year.

In July 1979, the President finally decided to dissolve the Parliament and call for a new election for December. Mota Pinto was replaced in the period between the dissolution and the election by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (the only women to lead a government in Portugal). The right-wing parties, the Social Democratic, the Democratic and Social Center and the People's Monarchist Party united in the Democratic Alliance (Portuguese: Aliança Democrática or AD) under the lead of Sá Carneiro won the election, receiving 43% of the vote. The Socialists lost more than 30 MPs and the Communists, now allied with the Portuguese Democratic Movement in the United People Alliance achieved their highest total ever, with almost 20% of the voting.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• United People Alliance (APU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Socialist Party (PS), Mário Soares
• Democratic Alliance (AD), Francisco Sá Carneiro

The leader of the Democratic Alliance, Francisco Sá Carneiro, member of the Social Democratic Party was nominated Prime-Minister.

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 2 December 1979 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties			Votes	%	±	Seats
						1976	1979	±	%	±
		Democratic Alliance	2,554,458	42.52	—	—	121	—	48.40	—
		Social Democratic	141,227	2.35	—	73	7	—	2.80	—
		Democratic and Social Centre	23,523	0.39	—	42	0	—	0.00	—
	Total Democratic Alliance		2,719,208	45.26	4.41	1151	128	131	51.20	7.51
		Socialist	1,642,136	27.33	7.6	107	74	33	29.60	11.1
		United People Alliance	1,129,322	18.80	4.4	40	47	7	18.80	3.6
		People's Democratic Union	130,842	2.18	0.5	1	1	0	0.40	0.0
		Christian Democratic Party	72,514	1.21	0.7	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		Workers' Communist Party	53,268	0.89	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		UEDS	43,325	0.72	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
		Revolutionary Socialist Party	36,978	0.62	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		Workers Party of Socialist Unity	12,713	0.21	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
		OCMLP	3,433	0.06	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
Total valid			5,843,739	97.28	2.0	263	250	13	100.00	0.0
Blank ballots			42,863	0.71	—
Invalid ballots			120,851	2.01	2.7
Total (turnout 82.86%)			6,007,453	100.00	0.6
A Alliance formed by the Social Democratic Party (73 seats), the Democratic and Social Centre (43 seats) and the People's Monarchist Party (5 seats). B Social Democratic Party and Democratic and Social Centre electoral list only in Azores and Madeira. C Portuguese Communist Party (44 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

¹ Democratic Alliance results are compared to the combined totals of the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic and Social Centre and the People's Monarchist Party in the 1976 election.

Vote share
AD			45.26%
PS			27.33%
APU			18.80%
UDP			2.18%
PDC			1.21%
PCTP/MRPP			0.89%
Others/Invalides			4.33%

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal