Portuguese legislative election, 1987

Portuguese legislative election, 1987

19 July 1987
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   144px 115px Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Vítor Constâncio Party PSD PS Leader since 2 June 1985 29 June 1986 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 88 seats, 29.9% 57 seats, 20.8% Seats won 148 60 Seat change 60 3 Popular vote 2,850,784 1,262,506 Percentage 50.2% 22.2% Swing 20.3% 1.4%
Prime Minister before election Cavaco Silva PSD Elected Prime Minister Cavaco Silva PSD

Portugal

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on 19 July. In the previous election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had won a minority government managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic and Social Center and the Democratic Renewal Party, and after the approval of a no-confidence motion from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renewal Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

The PSD was very popular going into the election, and was elected to a landslide majority government--the biggest that a Portuguese party had ever won in a free election. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition lost some of its MPs to the Socialist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party lost almost all of its influence, mainly due to its responsibility in the fall of the former government. The right-wing Democratic and Social Center lost almost half of its vote share, due to the effect of tactical voting for the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party. European elections were held on the same day.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
• Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• Democratic and Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

Opinion Polling

See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed are currently represented in parliament. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1985 and 1987 for reference.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PSD	PS	CDU	PRD	CDS	Others	Lead
19 Jul 1987	Leg. Election	50.2 148 seats	22.2 60 seats	12.1 31 seats	4.9 7 seats	4.4 4 seats	6.2 0 seats	28.0
19 Jul	RTP1	48.0 – 50.0	21.0 – 23.0	12.5 – 14.5	5.0 – 7.0	3.0 – 5.0	–	27.0
19 Jul	Antena1	45.0 – 47.0	24.0 – 25.0	–	–	–	–	21.0 – 22.0
Exit polls
17 Jul	Euroexpansão/Expresso	41.0 – 44.0	22.0 – 25.0	13.0 – 15.0	11.0 – 14.0	4.0 – 6.0	–	19.0
1987
6 Oct 1985	Leg. Election	29.9 88 seats	20.8 57 seats	15.5 38 seats	17.9 45 seats	10.0 22 seats	5.9 0 seats	9.1

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 19 July 1987 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1985	1987	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	2,850,784	50.22	20.3	88	148	60	59.20	24.0	1.18
	Socialist	1,262,506	22.24	1.4	57	60	3	24.00	1.2	1.08
	Democratic Unity Coalition	689,137	12.14	3.4	38	31	7	12.40	2.8	1.02
	Democratic Renewal	278,561	4.91	13.0	45	7	38	2.80	15.2	0.57
	Democratic and Social Centre	251,987	4.44	5.6	22	4	18	1.60	7.2	0.36
	People's Democratic Union	50,717	0.89	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	32,977	0.58	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	32,607	0.57	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Christian Democratic Party	31,667	0.56	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist Party	23,218	0.41	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Workers' Communist Party	20,800	0.37	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Communist Party (Reconstructed)	18,544	0.33	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	9,185	0.16	0.6	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,552,690	97.82	0.3	250	250	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		50,135	0.88	0.1
Invalid ballots		73,533	1.30	0.4
Total (turnout 71.57%)		5,676,358	100.00	2.6
A In 1985, as United People Alliance. B Portuguese Communist Party (29 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share
PSD			50.22%
PS			22.24%
CDU			12.14%
PRD			4.91%
CDS			4.44%
UDP			0.89%
Others/Invalides			5.16%

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