2020 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election

2020 Social Democratic Party leadership election

← 2018 11–18 January 2020 (2020-01-11 – 2020-01-18) 2021 →
Turnout	79.0% 18.7 pp First round 80.2% 1.2 pp Second round
Candidate Rui Rio Luís Montenegro Miguel Pinto Luz Popular vote (1st) 15,546 13,136 3,030 Share (1st) 49.0% 41.4% 9.6% Popular vote (2nd) 17,157 15,086 Eliminated Share (2nd) 53.2% 46.8%
Second round results First round results      Rio      Montenegro      Pinto Luz      Tie
Leader before election Rui Rio Elected Leader Rui Rio

The 2020 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election was held on 11 and 18 January 2020. As no candidate received a majority of all valid votes on the first round, held on 11 January 2020, a second round took place one week later, 18 January, between the two candidates with the highest number of votes in the first round. This was the first time that a Social Democratic Party leadership election was contested on a second ballot. For both ballots, more than 40,000 party members, just 36 percent out of almost 110,000 active members, were registered to vote.^[1]

In the first round of the election, incumbent party leader Rui Rio finished in first place with a relative majority of 49.0% of all valid votes cast, followed by contesters Luís Montenegro, who received 41.4% of the vote, and Miguel Pinto Luz, who won 9.6% of the vote.^[2] As no candidate managed to reach the required percentage of the vote to win outright in the first round, a run-off election took place between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round: Rio and Montenegro. Rui Rio won the second round with 53.2% of the vote and was thus re-elected President of the party and stayed on as Leader of the Opposition.^[3]