Portuguese legislative election, 1976

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Portugal

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The Portuguese legislative election of 1976 took place on April 25, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the Carnation Revolution. With a new Constitution approved, the country's main aim was the economical recovery and the strengthen of the democratic conquests.

The election was won again by the Socialist Party and Mário Soares, its leader, became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government in July 23. The lack of a socialist majority forced this party to form an unexpected coalition with the Democratic Social Center, the party on the right end of the political spectrum at the time. The nature of such coalition, between a party that defended the socialist way to the country and another that voted against the constitution because of its socialist influences surprised most of the Portuguese voters and marked the start of the right-wing turn of the Socialist Party that would soon be attacked by all the left due to the new government measures against the left-wing conquests of the revolution, mainly the agrarian reform.

The Social Democratic Party was the second most voted party and the Portuguese Communist Party achieved a relevant increase in the voting, showing its growing influence, mainly in the south of the country.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

[edit] National summary of votes and seats

Portuguese legislative election, 1976 (April 25)
Logo Party Votes % Change Seats
PS
1,912,921
34.9%
-
107
PSD
1,335,381
24.4%
-
73
CDS
876,007
16.0%
-
42
PCP
788,830
14.4%
-
40
UDP
91,690
01.7%
-
1
FSP
42,162
00.8%
-
0
MRPP
36,200
00.7%
-
0
MES
31,332
00.6%
-
0
PDC
29,874
00.5%
-
0
PPM
28,320
00.5%
-
0
LCI
16,269
00.3%
-
0
PCP(M-L)
15,830
00.3%
-
0
AOC
15,778
00.3%
-
0
PRT
5,171
00.1%
-
0
Blank Ballots
0
00.0%
-
-
Invalid Ballots
257,696
04.7%
-
-
5,483,461
-
-
263
  • Registered Voters: 6,564,667
  • Turnout: 83.53%

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

[edit] References


[edit] See also

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