1980 Portuguese legislative election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1980 took place on 5 October. In January 1980, the Democratic Alliance, which had won the previous election, on 2 December 1979, entered office with Francisco Sá Carneiro leading the government. However, this election was an extraordinary election, and so, in 1980, another election was held.

1980 Portuguese legislative election

5 October 1980
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
Registered	7,179,023 1.0%
Turnout	6,026,395 (83.9%) 1.0 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Francisco Sá Carneiro Mário Soares Álvaro Cunhal Party PSD PS PCP Alliance AD FRS APU Leader since 29 April 1979[lower-alpha 1] 19 April 1973[lower-alpha 2] 1979 Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2] Lisbon Last election 128 seats, 45.3% 74 seats, 27.3%^1 47 seats, 18.8% Seats won 134 74 41 Seat change 6 0 6 Popular vote 2,868,076 1,673,279 1,009,505 Percentage 47.6% 27.8% 16.8% Swing 2.3 pp 0.5 pp 2.0 pp
Results by district or autonomous region PSD ran alone in the Azores and Madeira. PS ran alone in the Azores, Madeira, Europe and Rest of the World.
Prime Minister before election Francisco Sá Carneiro PSD Elected Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro PSD

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.[3]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[4] 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.[5]

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• United People Alliance (APU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Republican and Socialist Front (FRS), Mário Soares
• Democratic Alliance (AD), Francisco Sá Carneiro

The leader of the Democratic Alliance, Francisco Sá Carneiro, member of the Social Democratic Party was nominated Prime-Minister.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance		Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	AD	« Garantir o progresso. »	"Ensure progress."	[6]
	FRS	« Um governo para todos. A sua segurança. »	"A government for all. Your safety."	[7]
	APU	« Vota APU, para a vitória de Abril »	"Vote APU, for the victory of April"	[8]
	UDP	« Abril de novo pela força do povo »	"April again by the strength of the people"	[9]

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 5 October 1980 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties			Votes	%	±	Seats					MPs %/ votes %
						1979	1980	±	%	±
		Democratic Alliance^[A]	2,706,667	44.91	2.4	121	126	5	50.40	2.0	1.12
		Social Democratic^[B]	147,644	2.45	0.1	7	8	1	3.20	0.4	1.31
		Democratic and Social Centre^[B]	13,765	0.23	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total Democratic Alliance			2,868,076	47.59	2.3	128	134	6	53.60	2.4	1.13
		Republican and Socialist Front^[C]	1,606,198	26.65	N/A	N/A	71	N/A	28.40	N/A	1.07
		Socialist^[D]	67,081	1.11	N/A	74	3	N/A	1.20	N/A	1.08
Total Republican and Socialist Front			1,673,279	27.76	0.4^1	74^1	74	0^1	29.60	0.0^1	1.07
		United People Alliance^[E]	1,009,505	16.75	2.0	47	41	6	16.40	2.4	0.98
		People's Democratic Union	83,204	1.38	0.8	1	1	0	0.40	0.0	0.29
		Workers Party of Socialist Unity	83,095	1.38	1.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
		Revolutionary Socialist	60,496	1.00	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
		Labour	39,408	0.65	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
		Workers' Communist Party	35,409	0.59	0.3	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
		PDC / MIRN/PDP / FN	23,819	0.40	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
		Democratic Party of the Atlantic	8,529	0.14	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
		OCMLP	3,913	0.06	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid			5,888,733	97.72	0.4	250	250	0	100.00	0	—
Blank ballots			34,552	0.57	0.1
Invalid ballots			103,140	1.71	0.3
Total (turnout 83.94%)			6,026,395	100.00	1.0
^A Alliance formed by the Social Democratic Party (74 seats), the Democratic and Social Centre (46 seats) and the People's Monarchist Party (6 seats). ^B Social Democratic Party and Democratic and Social Centre electoral list only in Azores and Madeira. ^C Alliance formed by the Socialist Party (63 seats), the Leftwing Union for the Socialist Democracy (4 seats) and the Independent Social-Democratic Action (4 seats). ^D Socialist Party electoral list only in Azores and Madeira. ^E Portuguese Communist Party (39 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[10]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

¹ Republican and Socialist Front results are compared to the combined totals of the Socialist Party in the 1979 election.

Vote share AD   44.91% FRS   26.65% APU   16.75% PSD   2.45% UDP   1.38% POUS   1.38% PS   1.11% PSR   1.00% AOC   0.65% PCTP/MRPP   0.59% Others   0.83% Blank/Invalid   2.28%

Parliamentary seats AD   50.40% FRS   28.40% APU   16.40% PSD   3.20% PS   1.20% UDP   0.40%

Distribution by constituency

 Results of the 1980 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency

Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	AD		FRS		APU		PSD		PS		UDP
Azores					3.1	-	57.0	4	27.3	1	1.3	-	5
Aveiro	58.8	10	27.1	4	6.8	1							15
Beja	22.4	1	21.1	1	47.1	3					1.3	-	5
Braga	54.9	9	29.3	5	8.4	1					0.9	-	15
Bragança	65.3	3	21.3	1	4.8	-					1.0	-	4
Castelo Branco	51.0	4	30.3	2	10.5	-					0.7	-	6
Coimbra	46.1	6	35.9	5	9.9	1					0.8	-	12
EvoraÉvora	29.2	1	18.7	1	45.7	3					0.9	-	5
Faro	37.2	4	34.7	4	16.7	1					1.9	-	9
Guarda	60.6	4	26.3	1	5.0	-					0.7	-	5
Leiria	59.8	7	22.7	3	9.7	1					1.0	-	11
Lisbon	41.6	25	28.1	17	23.1	13					1.7	1	56
Madeira					2.9	-	63.6	4	16.5	1	4.5	-	5
Portalegre	33.4	2	32.4	1	26.1	1					0.7	-	4
Porto	46.6	19	34.3	14	11.9	5					1.4	-	38
Santarém	42.1	6	30.4	4	19.0	2					1.2	-	12
Setúbal	24.1	4	23.5	4	44.0	9					2.8	-	17
Viana do Castelo	59.2	5	22.8	1	10.0	-					0.7	-	6
Vila Real	62.1	5	22.8	1	5.1	-					0.8	-	6
Viseu	66.8	8	20.9	2	5.0	-					0.6	-	10
Europe	49.6	1			15.2	-			25.4	1	1.4	-	2
Rest of the World	85.5	2			2.6	-			4.0	-	0.4	-	2
Total	44.9	126	26.7	71	16.8	41	2.5	8	1.1	3	1.4	1	250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

• 
  Most voted political force by municipality.

Notes

1. As leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
2. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS).

References

1. Diário da Républica, 3 de Novembro de 1980 - Lista de candidatos eleitos
2. Fundação Mário Soares
3. "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
4. "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
5. Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
6. "Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)" (PDF). Francisco Teixeira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
7. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1980 – FRENTE REPUBLICANA E SOCIALISTA (PS + ASDI + UEDS)". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
8. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1980 – APU". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
9. "UDP – 1980". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
10. "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-02.

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