Portuguese legislative election, 1987

19 July 1987

250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
125 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	Vítor Constâncio
Party	PSD	PS
Leader since	2 June 1985	29 June 1986
Leader's seat	Lisbon^[1]	Lisbon^[2]
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 pp	1.4 pp

Prime Minister before election

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
PSD

Elected Prime Minister

Aníbal 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

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
Date Released	Polling Firm						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 %
Parties		Votes	%	±	1985	1987	±	%	±	MPs %/ votes %
	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^[A]^[B]	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	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	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	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	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.^[3]
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%
PSR			0.58%
MDP			0.57%
PDC			0.56%
Others			1.27%
Blank/Invalid			2.18%

Parliamentary seats

PSD			59.20%
PS			24.00%
CDU			12.40%
PRD			2.80%
CDS			1.60%

Distribution by constituency

Results of the 1987 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency
Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
Constituency	PSD		PS		CDU		PRD		CDS		Total S
Azores	66.7	4	20.0	1	2.3	-	3.0	-	3.3	-	5
Aveiro	60.4	11	22.9	4	4.4	-	2.7	-	5.3	-	15
Beja	24.5	1	20.3	1	38.7	3	5.7	-	2.0	-	5
Braga	53.4	10	25.9	5	6.1	1	3.3	-	5.9	1	17
Bragança	60.8	3	19.2	1	3.2	-	1.3	-	7.6	-	4
Castelo Branco	52.1	4	22.4	2	7.1	-	6.0	-	4.7	-	6
Coimbra	50.0	6	28.7	4	7.2	1	3.5	-	4.5	-	11
EvoraÉvora	32.1	2	15.4	-	36.2	2	7.7	-	2.1	-	4
Faro	46.7	5	24.9	3	10.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	9
Guarda	60.0	4	21.8	1	3.3	-	2.0	-	6.6	-	5
Leiria	60.8	9	18.7	2	5.9	-	3.0	-	6.0	-	11
Lisbon	45.8	28	21.2	12	16.5	10	6.9	4	3.7	2	56
Madeira	65.5	4	16.2	1	1.9	-	3.3	-	5.2	-	5
Portalegre	37.4	1	25.1	1	20.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	3
Porto	50.9	22	26.7	11	9.4	4	4.0	1	4.0	1	39
Santarém	47.9	7	21.7	3	12.6	1	7.3	1	3.6	-	12
Setúbal	32.6	6	17.6	3	32.7	7	8.7	1	1.9	-	17
Viana do Castelo	54.5	5	20.3	1	6.3	-	4.8	-	7.7	-	6
Vila Real	62.5	5	20.3	1	4.1	-	1.4	-	5.0	-	6
Viseu	64.1	8	17.9	2	2.9	-	1.7	-	7.0	-	10
zEurope	37.0	1	28.4	1	15.9	-	4.9	-	6.6	-	2
zRest of the World	63.2	2	7.3	-	1.4	-	1.7	-	19.9	-	2
Total	50.2	148	22.2	60	12.1	31	4.9	7	4.4	4	250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Most voted political force by district (Azores and Madeira not shown).
Most voted political force by municipality.

Elections and referendums in Portugal
Presidential elections	1918 (Apr) 1928 1935 1942 1949 1951 1958 1976 1980 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016
Parliamentary elections	1820 1822 1826 1834 1836 (Jul) 1836 (Nov) 1838 1840 1842 1845 1847 1851 1852 1856 1858 1860 1861 1864 1865 1868 1869 1870 (Mar) 1870 (Sep) 1871 1874 1878 1879 1881 1884 1887 1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1897 1899 1900 1901 1904 1905 1906 (Apr) 1906 (Aug) 1908 1910 1911* 1915 1918 1919 1921 1922 1925 1934 1938 1942 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1975* 1976 1979 1980 1983 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 2002 2005 2009 2011 2015 Next
Local elections	1976 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017
European elections	1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1933 1998 (Jun) 1998 (Nov) 2007
* Constituent Assembly ** Indirect elections See also: Elections in Azores Madeira

Portuguese legislative election, 1987

Parties

Opinion Polling

National summary of votes and seats

Distribution by constituency

Maps

References

External links

See also