Portuguese legislative election, 1995

Portuguese legislative election, 1995

1 October 1995
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader António Guterres Fernando Nogueira Party PS PSD Leader since 23 February 1992 19 February 1995 Leader's seat Castelo Branco Porto Last election 72 seats, 29.1% 135 seats, 50.6% Seats won 112 88 Seat change 40 47 Popular vote 2,583,755 2,014,589 Percentage 43.8% 34.1% Swing 14.7% 16.5%
Prime Minister before election Cavaco Silva PSD Elected Prime Minister Guterres PS

Portugal

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1995 took place on 1 October. The Socialist Party defeated the Social Democratic Party under the lead of António Guterres, elected three years before, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs. The Social Democratic party under the lead of Fernando Nogueira was weakened by the end of a ten years cycle of government of Cavaco Silva. The two minor parties, the People's Party and the Democratic Unity Coalition achieved only 15 MPs each, a thing that marked the growing bi-polarization of the Portuguese political map. Although turnout, in percentage point, was lower than the previous election in 1991, almost 6 million voters cast a ballot on election day, the highest figure since 1980.

Voter turnout stood at 66.3%, the lowest till then.

Parties

The major parties involved were listed with their leaders:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Carlos Carvalhas
• Socialist Party (PS), António Guterres
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Fernando Nogueira
• People's Party (CDS–PP), Manuel Monteiro

António Guterres, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the first time, becoming the first socialist Prime-Minister in 10 years.

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 1991 and 1995 for reference.

Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PSD	PS	CDU	CDS-PP	Others	Lead
Leg. Election	Election Results	34.1 88 seats	43.8 112 seats	8.6 15 seats	9.1 15 seats	4.4 0 seats	9.7
23 Sep	Metris	32.0	42.0	10.0	8.0	8.0	10.0
23 Sep	Euroteste	35.0	39.0	9.0	10.0	7.0	4.0
23 Sep	Euroexpansão	32.7	44.5	11.5	6.9	4.4	11.8
23 Sep	Universidade Católica	35.0	40.0	9.0	10.0	6.0	5.0
22 Sep	IPSOS	35.0	41.0	9.0	9.0	6.0	6.0
21 Sep	Marktest	33.0	42.0	10.0	9.0	6.0	9.0
16 Sep	Compta	39.0	40.0	12.0	8.0	1.0	1.0
1995
6 Oct 1991	Leg. Election	50.6 135 seats	29.1 72 seats	8.8 17 seats	4.4 5 seats	7.1 1 seats	21.5

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 1 October 1995 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1991	1995	±	%	±
	Socialist	2,583,755	43.76	14.7	72	112	40	48.70	17.4	1.11
	Social Democratic	2,014,589	34.12	16.5	135	88	47	38.26	20.4	1.12
	People's	534,470	9.05	4.7	5	15	10	6.52	4.3	0.72
	Democratic Unity Coalition	506,157	8.57	0.2	17	15	2	6.52	0.9	0.76
	Workers' Communist Party	41,137	0.70	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	37,638	0.64	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Democratic Union	33,876	0.57	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	National Solidarity Party	12,613	0.21	1.5	1	0	1	0.00	0.4	0.0
	Party of the People	8,279	0.14	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Earth Party	8,235	0.14	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Earth Party / People's Monarchist Party	5,932	0.10	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Unity Movement for Workers	2,544	0.04	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	2,536	0.04	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,791,761	98.08	0.0	230	230	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		45,793	0.78	0.0
Invalid ballots		67,300	1.14	0.0
Total (turnout 66.30%)		5,904,854	100.00	1.5
A In 1993, the name "People´s Party" was added to the party's name. B Portuguese Communist Party (13 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share
PS			43.76%
PPD/PSD			34.12%
CDS-PP			9.05%
CDU			8.57%
Others/Invalides			4.50%

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal