1983 Portuguese legislative election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1983 Portuguese legislative election took place on 25 April. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
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2.2%
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25 April 1983
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All 250 seats in the Assembly of the Republic 126 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 7,337,064 2.2% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 5,707,695 (77.8%) 6.1 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (AD) and Francisco Sá Carneiro had retained office as Prime Minister with an increased majority.
However, Sá Carneiro, along with other important members of the coalition, died in an aircrash only two months after the election, on 4 December 1980. Such happenings caused considerable political instability and Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a senior official of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the largest party in the Alliance, became Prime Minister. However, internal divisions within AD, along with poor results in local elections, led to Balsemão's resignation at the end of 1982, with President Eanes refusing to appoint a new PSD Prime Minister and instead calling a snap election for April 1983.
The election was won by the Socialist Party (PS) with 36 percent, and Mário Soares was nominated Prime Minister. However, the Socialists lacked a majority in the Assembly of the Republic and were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, which achieved 27 percent, in what was called the "Central Bloc". Although this coalition allowed Soares to govern, several members of both parties were against it, and internal attacks led to the collapse of the coalition after less than two years.
Besides the two main parties, the Communist-dominated United People Alliance (APU) gained 3 MPs and 18 percent of the votes, while the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance, garnered 30 MPs, a loss of 16, and 12 percent of the votes.
This would the last legislative election to be won by the Socialist Party until 1995.
Background
In October 1980, the Democratic Alliance (AD), led by Francisco Sá Carneiro, was reelected with a reinforced majority, but it was cut short with his death, his partner Snu Abecassis, his Defense minister Adelino Amaro da Costa and wife, plus other crew members, in a tragic plane crash in Camarate, Loures, shortly after taking off from Lisbon Airport.[1] This tragic air crash sparked a series of conspirancy theories, mainly because of Portugal's involvement in the Iran–Iraq War and the supply of weapons to both Iraq and Iran.[2]
Following the death of Sá Carneiro, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, CDS leader, became interim Prime Minister until the election of a new PSD leader. Days later, Francisco Pinto Balsemão was elected PSD leader and sworn in as Prime Minister.[3]
Government fall
Pinto Balsemão had a lot of problems in leading the government, as he lacked support from many senior members of his party, such as Aníbal Cavaco Silva, former Finance minister under Sá Carneiro, and several of his cabinet ministers kept resigning, like Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa,[4] not to mention the very tense and fraught relationship with President Ramalho Eanes.[5] Moreover, the right-wing policies were criticized by the left-wing and by trade unions, culminating in the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers, with the support of the Communists, calling a general strike in February 1982 that shook the government.[6] The wave of resignations among Balsemão's ministers continued and by the end of 1982, and also influenced by the AD's weak results in the 1982 local elections, Balsemão himself also resigned.[7]
The Social Democratic Party proposed, to President Ramalho Eanes, a government led by Vítor Crespo, but President Eanes rejected the proposal citing that the political conditions were just too deteriorated, and instead decided to dissolve Parliament and call an election for April.[8] Shortly after, the AD was dissolved as PSD, CDS and PPM decided to contest by their own the April snap election.[9]
Leadership changes and challenges
Social Democratic Party
On 13 December 1980, just a few days after Sá Carneiro's death, the PSD national party council elected Francisco Pinto Balsemão as party leader and nominated him to became Prime Minister.[10] Balsemão was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 January 1981.[3]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Francisco Pinto Balsemão | 59 | 96.7 | |
| Against | 1 | 1.6 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 1 | 1.6 | |
| Turnout | 61 | ||
| Source: Público[10] | |||
In early 1983, after the collapse of the AD coalition, the then PSD leader Francisco Pinto Balsemão announced he would not run again for the leadership of the party nor be the party's candidate for the early legislative election.[11] Carlos Mota Pinto, former Prime Minister, supported Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos' candidacy for President of the party, in order for him to be the party's candidate for Prime Minister, while Pinto Balsemão's wing supported João Bosco Mota Amaral, President of the Regional Government of the Azores, who ended up dropping out.[12] In a deeply divided Congress, Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos won the presidency, while Mota Pinto was selected by the PSD as the party's candidate for Prime Minister.[13]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos | 596 | 73.3 | |
| João Bosco Mota Amaral | withdrew | ||
| Against | 118 | 14.5 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 99 | 12.2 | |
| Turnout | 813 | ||
| Source: Diário de Lisboa[12] | |||
Democratic Social Center
Just like in the PSD, after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance (AD), Diogo Freitas do Amaral also resigned from his party's leadership, and a snap congress to elect a new leader was called.[14] Two candidates were on the ballot, Francisco Lucas Pires and Luís Barbosa, with Lucas Pires being elected as new party leader.[15]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Francisco Lucas Pires | 58.2 | ||
| Luís Barbosa | 41.8 | ||
| Turnout | |||
| Source: Diário de Lisboa[16] | |||
Electoral system
The Assembly of the Republic has 250 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 126 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.[17]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[18] The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.[19]
For these elections, and compared with the 1980 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[20]
| District | Number of MPs | Map |
|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 56 | 
16
6
38
6
4
15
10
5
11
6
11
12
56
4
5
17
5
9
5
5
2
2
|
| Porto | 38 | |
| Setúbal | 17 | |
| Braga(+1) | 16 | |
| Aveiro | 15 | |
| Santarém | 12 | |
| Leiria and Coimbra(–1) | 11 | |
| Viseu | 10 | |
| Faro | 9 | |
| Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real | 6 | |
| Azores, Beja, Évora, Guarda and Madeira | 5 | |
| Bragança and Portalegre | 4 | |
| Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
Parties
The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 2nd legislature (1980–1983) and that also contested the elections:
Campaign period
Issues
The country's very difficult economic situation, with the need for austerity measures, dominated the campaing.[22] The campaign itself was rather low-key, sign of the country's problematic economic situation and a gloomy electorate.[22][23] The Socialist Party (PS), under the leadership of Mário Soares, envisioned a comeback, with Soares pointing to the need for a "clear majority" due to the country's bad shape, while the Social Democrats (PSD), led by a new leader, Carlos Mota Pinto, warned of the dangers of instability.[22] Álvaro Cunhal's communist APU coalition ran under the motto of "defeating the reactionary parties", whereas the Democratic Social Center (CDS) campaigned on the basis of national liberalism.[22]
Party slogans
| Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSD | « Firmeza na decisão. Competência na acção. » | "Firmness in the decision. Competence in action." | [24] | |
| PS | « Juntos vamos conseguir » | "Together we will do it" | [25] | |
| CDS | « O nosso caminho é Portugal » | "Our path is Portugal" | [26] | |
| APU | « Vota APU, A solução! » | "Vote APU, The Solution!" | [27] | |
Candidates' debates
Opinion polling
Exit poll / Forecast
| Polling firm/Link | Date Released |  |
 |
PS |  |
O | Lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 legislative election | 25 Apr 1983 | 27.2 75 |
12.6 30 |
36.1 101 |
18.1 44 |
6.0 0 |
8.9 | |
| RTP (23:15) | 25 Apr 1983 | 25.4–27.7 69/72 |
11.5–12.0 27/30 |
36.0–39.1 98/104 |
17.2–18.5 42/46 |
– | 10.6 11.4 | |
| RTP (20:30) | 25 Apr 1983 | 22.0–25.5 65/72 |
12.0–14.5 35/40 |
36.0–38.5 94/102 |
16.5–19.0 42/46 |
– | 13.0 14.0 | |
| Tempo | Apr 1983 | 24 | 12.5 | 38 | 17 | 8.5 | 14 | |
| Euroexpansão | 29 Jan 1983 | 24 | 12 | 33 | 19 | 12 | 9 | |
| 1982 local elections | 12 Dec 1982 | 42.5 | 31.8 | 20.7 | 5.0 | 10.7 | ||
| Euroexpansão | Sep 1982 | 22 | 19 | 28 | 18 | 13 | 6 | |
| Antropos[d] | 27 Jul 1981 | 42.0 | 36.1 | 13.9 | 8.0 | 5.9 | ||
| 25.1 | 9.9 | 42.4 | 14.0 | 8.6 | 17.3 | |||
| 1980 legislative election | 5 Oct 1980 | 47.6 134 |
27.8 74 |
16.8 41 |
7.8 1 |
19.8 | ||
Results
National summary
 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
| Socialist Party[e][a] | 2,061,309 | 36.11 | +8.34 | 101 | +35 | |
| Social Democratic Party[b] | 1,554,804 | 27.24 | — | 75 | –7 | |
| United People Alliance[c] | 1,031,609 | 18.07 | +1.32 | 44 | +3 | |
| Democratic and Social Centre[b] | 716,705 | 12.56 | — | 30 | –16 | |
| Christian Democratic Party | 39,180 | 0.69 | +0.29 | 0 | 0 | |
| People's Monarchist Party | 27,635 | 0.48 | — | 0 | –6 | |
| Popular Democratic Union | 27,260 | 0.48 | –0.90 | 0 | –1 | |
| Popular Democratic Union–Revolutionary Socialist Party | 25,222 | 0.44 | — | 0 | — | |
| Portuguese Workers' Communist Party | 20,995 | 0.37 | –0.22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Workers' Party of Socialist Unity | 19,657 | 0.34 | –1.04 | 0 | 0 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 13,327 | 0.23 | –0.73 | 0 | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers League | 11,500 | 0.20 | New | 0 | New | |
| Portuguese Marxist–Leninist Communist Organization | 6,113 | 0.11 | +0.05 | 0 | 0 | |
| Democratic Party of the Atlantic | 5,523 | 0.10 | –0.04 | 0 | 0 | |
| Communist Party (Reconstructed)[f] | 86 | 0.00 | New | 0 | New | |
| Total | 5,560,925 | 100.00 | – | 250 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 5,560,925 | 97.43 | –0.29 | |||
| Invalid votes | 104,276 | 1.83 | +0.12 | |||
| Blank votes | 42,494 | 0.74 | +0.17 | |||
| Total votes | 5,707,695 | 100.00 | – | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 7,337,064 | 77.79 | –6.15 | |||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[30] | ||||||
Distribution by constituency
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS | PSD | APU | CDS | ||||||
| Azores | 31.1 | 2 | 54.4 | 3 | 3.1 | - | 4.7 | - | 5 |
| Aveiro | 36.6 | 6 | 34.8 | 6 | 7.0 | 1 | 16.4 | 2 | 15 |
| Beja | 28.0 | 2 | 11.8 | - | 49.4 | 3 | 4.1 | - | 5 |
| Braga | 39.7 | 7 | 27.0 | 5 | 8.8 | 1 | 18.3 | 3 | 16 |
| Bragança | 30.4 | 1 | 35.8 | 2 | 4.8 | - | 20.9 | 1 | 4 |
| Castelo Branco | 37.1 | 3 | 30.6 | 2 | 11.3 | - | 13.2 | 1 | 6 |
| Coimbra | 45.3 | 6 | 27.8 | 3 | 10.7 | 1 | 10.2 | 1 | 11 |
| Évora | 23.9 | 1 | 18.6 | 1 | 47.6 | 3 | 4.5 | - | 5 |
| Faro | 43.2 | 5 | 23.1 | 2 | 18.6 | 2 | 7.4 | - | 9 |
| Guarda | 33.5 | 2 | 31.5 | 2 | 4.9 | - | 23.8 | 1 | 5 |
| Leiria | 32.7 | 4 | 35.6 | 4 | 9.5 | 1 | 16.2 | 2 | 11 |
| Lisbon | 35.8 | 21 | 21.8 | 13 | 25.3 | 15 | 11.7 | 7 | 56 |
| Madeira | 24.4 | 1 | 56.2 | 4 | 2.8 | - | 8.2 | - | 5 |
| Portalegre | 38.5 | 2 | 19.1 | 1 | 28.7 | 1 | 7.5 | - | 4 |
| Porto | 43.0 | 18 | 26.2 | 10 | 13.6 | 5 | 12.5 | 5 | 38 |
| Santarém | 38.4 | 5 | 24.7 | 3 | 20.0 | 3 | 10.0 | 1 | 12 |
| Setúbal | 30.6 | 6 | 12.7 | 2 | 45.8 | 8 | 5.1 | 1 | 17 |
| Viana do Castelo | 32.5 | 2 | 32.6 | 3 | 9.9 | - | 18.4 | 1 | 6 |
| Vila Real | 32.3 | 2 | 42.0 | 3 | 5.4 | - | 12.7 | 1 | 6 |
| Viseu | 30.9 | 4 | 36.6 | 4 | 4.6 | - | 20.7 | 2 | 10 |
| Europe | 33.6 | 1 | 31.2 | 1 | 17.1 | - | 11.1 | - | 2 |
| Outside Europe | 7.0 | - | 48.2 | 1 | 2.8 | - | 34.1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 36.1 | 101 | 27.2 | 75 | 18.1 | 44 | 12.6 | 30 | 250 |
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | |||||||||
Maps
Winner and seats by constituency.
Most voted political force by municipality.
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Aftermath
Fall of the government
The Central Bloc government had become deeply unpopular by 1984, with the consequences of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to save public finances and the economy hitting hard on the population.[31] The budget cuts and increasing poverty were creating deep disagreements between PS and PSD, but also within both parties rifts were being formed. In the Social Democrats, these rifts came to a breaking point in February 1985 with party leader Carlos Mota Pinto resigning and announcing he would contest the next leadership ballot.[32] But, Mota Pinto died unexpectedly just days prior to the 1985 PSD congress and Aníbal Cavaco Silva, which was against the Central Bloc, was elected as leader.[33] Shortly after his election as party leader, Cavaco Silva withdrew the PSD support to the Central Bloc, and the government fell. President Ramalho Eanes decided to dissolve Parliament and call a snap election for 6 October 1985.[33]
See also
Notes
- The Socialist Party (PS), the Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy (UEDS) and the Independent Social-Democratic Action (ASDI) contested the 1980 election in a coalition called Republican and Socialist Front (FRS) and won a combined 27.8% of the vote and elected 74 MPs to parliament.
- The Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Democratic Social Center (CDS) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) contested the 1980 election in a coalition called Democratic Alliance (AD) and won a combined 47.6% of the vote and elected 134 MPs to parliament.
- The Portuguese Communist Party (41 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.
- AD coalition poll - Results presented here exclude undecideds (10.4%), abstention (2.6%) and doesn't answer (6.6%). With their inclusion results are: AD: 33.8%; PS: 29.0%; APU: 11.2%; Others/Invalid: 6.4%. PSD and CDS separate lists poll - Results presented here exclude undecideds (10.4%), abstention (2.2%) and doesn't answer (6.2%). With their inclusion results are: PS: 34.4%; PSD: 20.4%; APU: 11.4%; CDS: 8.0%; Others/Invalid: 7.0%.
- The Socialist Party (PS) results are compared to the combined total share of the vote from the Republican and Socialist Front and from the 66 seats elected by the PS, within the coalition, in the 1980 election.
- The Communist Party (Reconstructed) list only in Europe and Rest of the World.