Portuguese legislative election, 1976

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Portuguese legislative election, 1976

← 1975 25 April 1976 1979 →

263 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
132 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
  Mário Soares (2003) square.jpg Sá Carneiro.jpg
Leader Mário Soares Francisco Sá Carneiro
Party PS PSD
Leader since 19 April 1973 6 May 1974
Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Porto[2]
Last election 116 seats, 37.9% 81 seats, 26.4%
Seats won 107 73
Seat change Decrease 9 Decrease 8
Popular vote 1,912,921 1,335,381
Percentage 34.9% 24.4%
Swing Decrease 3.0% Decrease 2.0%

Prime Minister before election

Vasco de Almeida e Costa (interim)
Independent

Elected Prime Minister

Soares
PS

Portugal
Coat of arms of Portugal.svg

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1976 took place on 25 April, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the Carnation Revolution. With a new Constitution approved, the country's main aim was the economical recovery and the strengthen of the democratic conquests.

The election was won again by the Socialist Party and Mário Soares, its leader, became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government on 23 July. The lack of a socialist majority forced this party to form an unexpected coalition with the Democratic and Social Center, the party on the right end of the political spectrum at the time. The nature of such coalition, between a party that defended the socialist way to the country and another that voted against the constitution because of its socialist influences surprised most of the Portuguese voters and marked the start of the right-wing turn of the Socialist Party that would soon be attacked by all the left due to the new government measures against the left-wing conquests of the revolution, mainly the agrarian reform.

The Social Democratic Party was the second most voted party and the Portuguese Communist Party achieved a relevant increase in the voting, showing its growing influence, mainly in the south of the country.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

National summary of votes and seats

e • d Summary of the 25 April 1976 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± Seats
1975 1976 ± % ±
Socialist 1,912,921 34.89 Decrease3.0 116 107 Decrease9 40.68 Decrease5.7
Social Democratic 1,335,381 24.35 Decrease2.0 81 73 Decrease8 27.76 Decrease4.6
Democratic and Social Centre 876,077 15.98 Increase8.4 16 42 Increase26 15.97 Increase9.6
Portuguese Communist Party 788,830 14.39 Increase1.9 30 40 Increase10 15.21 Increase3.2
People's Democratic Union 91,690 1.67 Increase0.9 1 1 Steady0 0.38 Steady0.0
People's Socialist Front 42,162 0.77 Decrease0.4 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0
Workers' Communist Party 36,200 0.66 0 0.00
Movement of Socialist Left 31,332 0.57 Decrease0.4 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0
Christian Democratic Party 29,874 0.54 0 0.00
People's Monarchist Party 28,320 0.52 Decrease0.1 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0
Internationalist Communist League 16,269 0.30 Increase0.1 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0
PCP(m-l) 15,830 0.29 0 0.00
Worker-Peasant Alliance 15,778 0.29 0 0.00
Revolutionary Socialist Party 5,171 0.09 0 0.00
Total valid 5,225,835 95.30 Increase2.3 250[A] 263 Increase13 100.00 Steady0.0
Invalid ballots 257,696 4.70 Decrease2.3
Total (turnout 83.53%) 5,483,461 100.00 Decrease8.2
A Portuguese Democratic Movement won 5 seats and the Independent Democratic Association of Macau won 1 seat in the 1975
election. Both parties did not contested this election.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
Vote share
PS
  
34.89%
PSD
  
24.35%
CDS
  
15.98%
PCP
  
14.39%
UDP
  
1.67%
FSP
  
0.77%
Others/Invalides
  
7.96%

References

External links

See also