Portuguese legislative election, 2005

Portuguese legislative election, 2005
2002 ←
 February 20, 2005
 → 2009
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader José Sócrates Pedro Santana Lopes
Party Socialist Social Democratic
Leader since 24 September 2004 29 June 2004
Leader's seat Castelo Branco[1] Lisbon[2]
Last election 96 seats, 37.8% 105 seats, 40.2%
Seats won 121 75
Seat change 25 30
Popular vote 2,588,312 1,653,425
Percentage 45.0% 28.8%
Swing 7.2% 11.4%
The first and the second most voted parties in each district
(Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Prime Minister before election

Pedro Santana Lopes
Social Democratic

 Prime Minister-elect

José Sócrates
Socialist
Portugal

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The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on February 20. These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on November 30, 2004 to dissolve the Parliament as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by Pedro Santana Lopes (PSD) in coalition with the PP. Santana Lopes had become Prime-Minister after José Manuel Durão Barroso left the country in order to become President of the European Commission in a decision that divided the country, because many Portuguese were expecting that the Socialist President Jorge Sampaio would dissolve parliament and call a legislative election. However, after five unstable months, president Sampaio decided to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections. The Prime Minister nevertheless announced the resignation of the government on December 11, in an action with no practical effects whatsoever.

The campaign started officially on February 6 and the major topics were the problematic state of the country's finances, unemployment and abortion.

The right-wing parties, mainly the Social Democrats, were punished for their performance in government, and lost more than 10% of the voting. On the left, the Leftwing Bloc achieved its best result ever and made the biggest climb, gaining 5 MPs, while the CDU (Communists and the Greens) gained 2 MPs and reversed their downward trend of the last elections.

The major parties involved, listed with their leaders:

With 230 seats the results are:

José Sócrates, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

Contents

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 2002 and 2005 for reference.

Date Institute Socialist Social Democratic People's Party Green-Communist Left Bloc Lead
February 20, 2005 Election Results 45.0%
121 seats		 28.8%
75 seats		 7.2%
12 seats		 7.5%
14 seats		 6.4%
8 seats		 16.2%
February 18, 2005 Aximage 46.8% 29.6% 7.3% 7.0% 5.5% 17.2%
February 18, 2005 Marktest 46.0% 26.8% 7.5% 8.9% 7.7% 19.2%
February 18, 2005 Eurosondagem 45.0% 30.6% 7.7% 7.7% 5.7% 14.4%
February 18, 2005 IPOM 46.0% 30.0% 8.0% 6.0% 7.0% 16.0%
February 18, 2005 INTERCAMPUS 45.9% 30.3% 7.1% 7.6% 5.2% 15.6%
February 17, 2005 TNS/Euroteste 39.0% 28.0% 7.0% 6.0% 6.0% 11.0%
February 17, 2005 Universidade Católica 46.0% 31.0% 6.0% 7.0% 7.0% 15.0%
February 12, 2005 Eurosondagem 44.4% 31.3% 7.4% 6.9% 6.4% 13.1%
February 11, 2005 Aximage 44.7% 27.4% 6.4% 7.1% 4.8% 17.3%
February 4, 2005 IPOM 49.0% 31.0% 8.0% 6.0% 5.0% 18.0%
February 4, 2005 Aximage 43.5% 29.3% 7.0% 5.6% 3.5% 14.2%
February 3, 2005 INTERCAMPUS 46.5% 31.6% 4.8% 8.1% 4.5% 14.9%
January 29, 2005 Eurosondagem 46.1% 32.1% 7.0% 6.6% 4.6% 14.0%
January 28, 2005 Marktest 45.1% 27.7% 6.3% 7.7% 8.1% 17.5%
January 28, 2005 Aximage 43.3% 27.4% 6.3% 5.8% 5.0% 15.9%
January 28, 2005 Universidade Católica 46.0% 28.0% 6.0% 8.0% 8.0% 18.0%
January 27, 2005 TNS/Euroteste 40.0% 32.0% 6.0% 4.0% 5.0% 8.0%
January 21, 2005 Axiamge 42.8% 28.7% 7.1% 6.2% 4.3% 14.1%
March 17, 2002 2002 election 37.8%
96 seats		 40.2%
105 seats		 8.7%
14 seats		 6.9%
12 seats		 2.7%
3 seats		 2.4%

National summary of votes and seats

e • d Summary of the 20 February 2005 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
2002 2005 ± % ±
Socialist 2,588,312 45.03 7.2 96 121 25 52.61 10.9 1.17
Social Democratic 1,653,425 28.77 11.4 105 75 30 32.61 13.0 1.13
Democratic Unity Coalition 433,369 7.54 0.6 12 14 2 6.09 0.9 0.81
People's Party 416,415 7.24 1.5 14 12 2 5.22 0.9 0.72
Left Bloc 364,971 6.35 3.6 3 8 5 3.48 2.2 0.55
PCTP/MRPP 48,186 0.84 0.2 0 0 0 0.00 0.0 0.0
New Democracy Party 40,358 0.70 — — 0 — 0.00 — 0.0
Humanist Party 17,056 0.30 0.1 0 0 0 0.00 0.0 0.0
National Renovator Party 9,374 0.16 0.1 0 0 0 0.00 0.0 0.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 5,535 0.10 0.0 0 0 0 0.00 0.0 0.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic[A] 1,681 0.03 — — 0 — 0.00 — 0.0
Total valid 5,578,782 97.06 1.0 230 230 0 100.00 0.0 —
Blank ballots 103,537 1.80 0.8
Invalid ballots 65,515 1.14 0.2
Total (turnout 64.26%) 5,747,834 100.00 2.8
A Democratic Party of the Atlantic electoral list only in Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

e • d Results of the 2005 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic by constituency
Constituency % S % S % S % S % S Total
S
PS PSD CDU CDS-PP BE
Azores 53.1 3 34.4 2 1.7 - 4.0 - 2.9 - 5
Aveiro 41.1 8 35.7 6 3.5 - 9.8 1 5.1 - 15
Beja 51.0 2 12.3 - 24.1 1 2.9 - 4.7 - 3
Braga 45.4 9 32.9 7 4.8 1 7.8 1 4.6 - 18
Bragança 42.1 2 39.0 2 2.0 - 9.7 - 2.5 - 4
Castelo Branco 56.0 4 26.7 1 3.8 - 5.3 - 3.7 - 5
Coimbra 45.4 6 31.9 4 5.5 - 5.5 - 6.3 - 10
EvoraÉvora 49.7 2 16.7 - 20.9 1 3.7 - 4.6 - 3
Faro 49.3 6 24.6 2 6.9 - 5.8 - 7.7 - 8
Guarda 46.8 2 34.7 2 2.9 - 7.0 - 3.4 - 4
Leiria 35.6 4 39.8 5 4.6 - 8.9 1 5.5 - 10
Lisbon 44.1 23 23.7 12 9.8 5 8.2 4 8.8 4 48
Madeira 35.0 3 45.2 3 3.6 - 6.6 - 3.8 - 6
Portalegre 54.9 2 20.2 - 12.1 - 4.2 - 4.6 - 2
Porto 48.5 20 27.8 12 5.4 2 6.9 2 6.7 2 38
Santarém 46.1 6 26.4 3 8.6 1 6.9 - 6.5 - 10
Setúbal 43.6 8 16.1 3 20.0 3 5.1 1 10.3 2 17
Viana do Castelo 42.0 3 33.5 2 3.8 - 11.4 1 4.5 - 6
Vila Real 43.8 3 40.2 2 2.6 - 6.8 - 2.4 - 5
Viseu 40.4 4 40.2 4 2.2 - 8.6 1 3.3 - 9
zEurope 54.3 1 27.2 1 4.2 - 3.4 - 2.3 - 2
zRest of the World 26.3 - 57.7 2 1.0 - 3.5 - 0.7 - 2
Total 45.0 121 28.8 75 7.5 14 7.2 12 6.4 8 230
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  2. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares

External links

See also

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* Constituent Assembly