Portuguese legislative election, 1991

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Portugal

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Politics and government of
Portugal

The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of Cavaco Silva, won the election easily with an absolute majority for the second consecutive turn, achieving a higher share than in the previous election, losing, however, 13 MPs due to the reduction of the overall number from the original 250 to 230.

The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the former President of Portugal, increased the share by 7% and gained 12 MPs, but did not managed to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. In the first legislative election after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the communist dominated Unitarian Democratic Coalition lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting.

On the right, the People's Party could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of the useful vote by the right-wing voters in the Social Democratic Party, increasing its parliamentary group by only 1 MP. The Party of the National Solidarity, using a populist speech, achieved for the first time an MP, in what would be the only presence of such party in the Parliament.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

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

[edit] National summary of votes and seats

Portuguese legislative election, 1991 (October 6)
Logo Party Votes % Change Seats
PSD
2,902,351
50.6%
-
135
PS
1,670,758
29.1%
-
72
CDU
504,583
08.6%
-
17
CDS/PP
254,317
04.4%
-
5
PSN
96,096
01.7%
-
1
PSR
64,159
01.1%
-
0
PCTP/MRPP
48,542
00.9%
-
0
PRD
35,077
00.6%
-
0
PPM
25,216
00.4%
-
0
PDA
10,842
00.2%
-
0
FER
6,661
00.1%
-
0
UDP
6,157
00.1%
-
0
Blank Ballots
47,652
00.8%
-
-
Invalid Ballots
63,020
01.1%
-
-
5,735,431
-
-
230
  • Registered Voters: 8,462,357
  • Turnout: 67.78%

Note:

  • CDU is composed of the PCP (Communist) (15 MPs), the PEV (Green) (2 MPs) and the ID (0 MPs)

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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