Portuguese Constituent Assembly election, 1975

Portuguese Constituent Assembly election, 1975

1973 ←
April 25, 1975
→ 1976

250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
125 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Mário Soares Francisco Sá Carneiro
Party Socialist Social Democratic
Leader since 19 April 1973 6 May 1974
Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Porto[2]
Seats won 116 81
Popular vote 2,162,972 1,507,282
Percentage 37.9% 26.4%
Portugal

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

An election of a Constituent Assembly was carried out in Portugal on April 25 of 1975, exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution and was the first free election in fifty years, the first in the new democratic regime created after the revolution which made the turnout the highest ever.

The main aim of the election was the election of a Constituent Assembly, in order to write a new Constitution to replace the Estado Novo regime's authoritarian Constitution of 1933 and so, the elected parliament had a single year mandate and no government was based on the parliament support, the country continued to be governed by a military-civilian provisional administration.

The election was, perhaps surprisingly, won by the Socialist Party. The Social Democratic Party was the second most voted party, defending a project that it would soon abandon, the social-democracy becoming the major right-wing party in the country a few years after. The parliament had a large majority of parties defending socialist or "democratic socialist" ideas and the Constitution, approved one year after, reflected such influence. The Portuguese Communist Party achieved a surprisingly low voting, considering the overwhelming support in the south of the country and the radical turn to the left of the revolutionary process after the failed fascist coup, one month before.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

Contents

National summary of votes and seats

e • d Summary of the 25 April 1975 Constituent Assembly elections results
Parties Votes % Seats
1975 %
Socialist 2,162,972 37.87 116 46.40
Social Democratic 1,507,282 26.39 81 32.40
Portuguese Communist Party 711,935 12.46 30 12.00
Democratic and Social Centre 434,879 7.61 16 6.40
Portuguese Democratic Movement 236,318 4.14 5 2.00
People's Socialist Front 66,307 1.16 0 0.00
Movement of Socialist Left 58,248 1.02 0 0.00
People's Democratic Union 44,877 0.79 1 0.40
Communist Electoral Front (Marxist–Leninist) 33,185 0.58 0 0.00
People's Monarchist Party 32,526 0.57 0 0.00
Popular Unity Party 13,138 0.23 0 0.00
Internationalist Communist League 10,835 0.19 0 0.00
Independent Democratic Association of Macau[A] 1,622 0.03 1 0.40
Democratic Centre of Macau[A] 1,030 0.02 0 0.00
Total valid 5,315,064 93.05 250 100.00
Invalid ballots 396,765 6.95
Total (turnout 91.66%) 5,711,829 100.00
A Independent Democratic Association of Macau and Democratic Centre of Macau electoral list only in Macau.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

References

External links

See also