1996 Portuguese presidential election

1996 Portuguese presidential election

14 January 1996
Turnout	66.3% 4.1 pp
130px 122px Candidate Jorge Sampaio Aníbal Cavaco Silva Party PS PSD Popular vote 3,035,056 2,595,131 Percentage 53.9% 46.1%
230px Results by municipalities.
President before election Mário Soares PS Elected President Jorge Sampaio PS

The 1996 Portuguese presidential election was held on 14 January.

Incumbent president Mário Soares was constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term. The Social Democrats were coming from a clear defeat in 1995 Portuguese legislative election, and their former leader, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who had left the office of Prime Minister after 10 years at the helm, lost by 400,000 votes to the Mayor of Lisbon, Jorge Sampaio.

The other left candidates, Jerónimo de Sousa and Alberto Matos, presented by the Portuguese Communist Party and the People's Democratic Union respectively, both left the race one week before the elections, announcing their support for Jorge Sampaio, as the victory of a left-wing candidate was in doubt. These parties had already supported Sampaio in a coalition that won the local elections in Lisbon. It would be the last time that People's Democratic Union presented a candidate, as two years later it merged with other small left-wing parties and formed the Left Bloc.

Cavaco Silva was supported by the two major right-wing parties, the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party, and once more, the right-wing parties did not manage to win the presidential election. The election was, therefore, a rematch between Jorge Sampaio and Cavaco Silva as in the 1991 general election, Cavaco Silva defeated Jorge Sampaio by a 51% to 29% margin.

Sampaio gathered the majority of the votes in all the districts in the South of Portugal, including the Communist strongholds in Alentejo and Setúbal district. Cavaco won in the more conservative districts of the North (excluding Porto district, where Sampaio edged out Cavaco by a narrow 52% to 48% margin) and also in Leiria district, traditional strongholds of the right-wing parties.

With only two candidates left on the race, no second round was needed, and Sampaio was inaugurated to his first term in office on 9 March 1996.

Aníbal Cavaco Silva would have to wait ten more years to be elected president in 2006.

Procedure

Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7500 and 15000 signatures and submit them to the Portuguese Constitutional Court.

According to the Portuguese Constitution, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates

• Jorge Sampaio, Mayor of Lisbon between 1989 and 1995, leader of the Socialist Party between 1989 and 1992, supported by the Socialist Party;
• Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister between 1985 and 1995, leader of the Social Democratic Party between 1985 and 1995, supported by the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party;
• Jerónimo de Sousa, Official candidate of the Portuguese Communist Party and Ecologist Party "The Greens", Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio;
• Alberto Matos, Official candidate of the People's Democratic Union, Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio;

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidate		Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	Jorge Sampaio	« Um por todos »	"One for all"
	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	« Em nome de Portugal »	"In the name of Portugal"
	Jerónimo de Sousa	« Contigo isto muda »	"With you this changes"
	Alberto Matos	« A escolha de um lado »	"Choosing a side"

Candidates' debates

1996 Portuguese presidential election debates
Date	Organisers	Moderator(s)	P  Present    A  Absent invitee  N  Non-invitee
			Sampaio	Cavaco	Jerónimo	Refs
14 Dec 1995	RTP1	Maria Elisa Domingues José Eduardo Moniz	P	P	P
21 Dec 1995	SIC	Margarida Marante Miguel Sousa Tavares	P	P	N

Opinion polls

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

      Exit poll

Polling firm	Date released	Sample size	60x90px	60x90px	Lead
			Sampaio PS	Cavaco Silva PSD
Election Results	14 Jan 1996	N/A	53.9	46.1	7.8
Euroteste/RTP	14 Jan 1996	N/A	56.0–60.0	40.0–44.0	16.0
Metris/SIC	14 Jan 1996	N/A	56.8–61.2	38.8–43.2	18.0
UCP-CESOP/TVI	14 Jan 1996	N/A	54.6–58.2	41.8–45.6	12.8
UCP-CESOP	6 Jan 1996	N/A	52.1	47.9	4.2
Metris	6 Jan 1996	N/A	57.1	42.9	14.2
Euroteste	6 Jan 1996	N/A	57.5	42.5	15.0
Euroexpansão	6 Jan 1996	N/A	57.7	42.3	15.4

Results

Summary of the 14 January 1996 Portuguese presidential election results

Candidates		Supporting parties	First round
			Votes	%
	Jorge Sampaio	Socialist Party	3,035,056	53.91
	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	Social Democratic Party, People's Party	2,595,131	46.09
	Jerónimo de Sousa	Portuguese Communist Party, Ecologist Party "The Greens"	left the race
	Alberto Matos	People's Democratic Union	left the race
Total valid			5,630,187	100.00
Blank ballots			69,328	1.20
Invalid ballots			63,463	1.10
Total			5,762,978
Registered voters/turnout			8,693,636	66.29
A B Both candidates left the race in favour of Jorge Sampaio.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share 1st Round
Jorge Sampaio			53.91%
Aníbal Cavaco Silva			46.09%
Blank/Invalid			2.30%

Maps

• Eleições presidenciais 1996.png

  Strongest candidate by electoral district.

• Eleições presidenciais portuguesas de 1996.png

  Strongest candidate by municipality.

External links

• Portuguese Electoral Commission
• NSD: European Election Database - Portugal publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2010

See also

• President of Portugal
• Portugal
• Politics of Portugal