1987 Portuguese legislative election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on 19 July. In the previous election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had won a minority government managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic and Social Center and the Democratic Renewal Party, and after the approval of a no-confidence motion from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renewal Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

1987 Portuguese legislative election

19 July 1987
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
Registered	7,930,668 1.4%
Turnout	5,676,358 (71.6%) 2.6 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva Vítor Constâncio Álvaro Cunhal Party PSD PS PCP Alliance CDU Leader since 2 June 1985 29 June 1986 30 September 1987 Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2] Lisbon Last election 88 seats, 29.9% 57 seats, 20.8% 38 seats, 15.5% Seats won 148 60 31 Seat change 60 3 7 Popular vote 2,850,784 1,262,506 689,137 Percentage 50.2% 22.2% 12.1% Swing 20.3 pp 1.4 pp 3.4 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Ramalho Eanes Adriano Moreira Party PRD CDS Leader since 1986 24 February 1985 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 45 seats, 17.9% 22 seats, 10.0% Seats won 7 4 Seat change 38 18 Popular vote 278,561 251,987 Percentage 4.9% 4.4% Swing 13.0 pp 5.6 pp
Results by district or autonomous region.
Prime Minister before election Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD Elected Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva PSD

The PSD was elected to a landslide majority government—the biggest that a Portuguese party had ever won in a free election. Although the PSD was very popular going into the election, the size of its victory far exceeded the party's most optimistic expectations. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition lost some of its MPs to the Socialist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party lost almost all of its influence, mainly due to its responsibility in the fall of the former government. The right-wing Democratic and Social Center lost almost half of its vote share, due to the effect of tactical voting for the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party.

European elections were held on the same day.

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:

• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
• Democratic Renewal Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• Democratic and Social Center (CDS), Adriano Moreira

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance		Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	PSD	« Portugal não pode parar »	"Portugal can't stop"	[6]
	PS	« A alternativa »	"The alternative"	[7]
	CDU	« CDU, É melhor para Portugal »	"CDU, It's better for Portugal"	[8]
	PRD	« Agora Portugal »	"Now Portugal"	[9]
	CDS	« Vote prá maioria »	"Vote for the majority"	[10]

Candidates' debates

No debates between the main parties were held as the PSD leader and Prime Minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, refused to take part in any debate.[11]

Opinion Polling

See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed are currently represented in parliament. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1985 and 1987 for reference.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PSD	PS	CDU	PRD	CDS	Others	Lead
19 Jul 1987	Leg. Election	50.2 148 seats	22.2 60 seats	12.1 31 seats	4.9 7 seats	4.4 4 seats	6.2 0 seats	28.0
19 Jul	RTP1	48.0–50.0	21.0–23.0	12.5–14.5	5.0–7.0	3.0–5.0	–	27.0
19 Jul	Antena1	45.0–47.0	24.0–25.0	–	–	–	–	21.0–22.0
Exit polls
17 Jul	Euroexpansão/Expresso	41.0–44.0	22.0–25.0	13.0–15.0	11.0–14.0	4.0–6.0	–	19.0
1987
6 Oct 1985	Leg. Election	29.9 88 seats	20.8 57 seats	15.5 38 seats	17.9 45 seats	10.0 22 seats	5.9 0 seats	9.1

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 19 July 1987 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1985	1987	±	%	±
	Social Democratic	2,850,784	50.22	20.3	88	148	60	59.20	24.0	1.18
	Socialist	1,262,506	22.24	1.4	57	60	3	24.00	1.2	1.08
	Democratic Unity Coalition^[A]^[B]	689,137	12.14	3.4	38	31	7	12.40	2.8	1.02
	Democratic Renewal	278,561	4.91	13.0	45	7	38	2.80	15.2	0.57
	Democratic and Social Centre	251,987	4.44	5.6	22	4	18	1.60	7.2	0.36
	People's Democratic Union	50,717	0.89	0.4	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Revolutionary Socialist	32,977	0.58	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	32,607	0.57	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Christian Democratic	31,667	0.56	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist	23,218	0.41	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	0.0
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	20,800	0.37	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Communist Party (Reconstructed)	18,544	0.33	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	9,185	0.16	0.6	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,552,690	97.82	0.3	250	250	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		50,135	0.88	0.1
Invalid ballots		73,533	1.30	0.4
Total (turnout 71.57%)		5,676,358	100.00	2.6
^A In 1985, as United People Alliance. ^B Portuguese Communist Party (29 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[12]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share PSD   50.22% PS   22.24% CDU   12.14% PRD   4.91% CDS   4.44% UDP   0.89% PSR   0.58% MDP   0.57% PDC   0.56% Others   1.27% Blank/Invalid   2.18%

Parliamentary seats PSD   59.20% PS   24.00% CDU   12.40% PRD   2.80% CDS   1.60%

Distribution by constituency

 Results of the 1987 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic
by constituency

Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	PSD		PS		CDU		PRD		CDS
Azores	66.7	4	20.0	1	2.3	-	3.0	-	3.3	-	5
Aveiro	60.4	11	22.9	4	4.4	-	2.7	-	5.3	-	15
Beja	24.5	1	20.3	1	38.7	3	5.7	-	2.0	-	5
Braga	53.4	10	25.9	5	6.1	1	3.3	-	5.9	1	17
Bragança	60.8	3	19.2	1	3.2	-	1.3	-	7.6	-	4
Castelo Branco	52.1	4	22.4	2	7.1	-	6.0	-	4.7	-	6
Coimbra	50.0	6	28.7	4	7.2	1	3.5	-	4.5	-	11
EvoraÉvora	32.1	2	15.4	-	36.2	2	7.7	-	2.1	-	4
Faro	46.7	5	24.9	3	10.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	9
Guarda	60.0	4	21.8	1	3.3	-	2.0	-	6.6	-	5
Leiria	60.8	9	18.7	2	5.9	-	3.0	-	6.0	-	11
Lisbon	45.8	28	21.2	12	16.5	10	6.9	4	3.7	2	56
Madeira	65.5	4	16.2	1	1.9	-	3.3	-	5.2	-	5
Portalegre	37.4	1	25.1	1	20.9	1	6.3	-	3.1	-	3
Porto	50.9	22	26.7	11	9.4	4	4.0	1	4.0	1	39
Santarém	47.9	7	21.7	3	12.6	1	7.3	1	3.6	-	12
Setúbal	32.6	6	17.6	3	32.7	7	8.7	1	1.9	-	17
Viana do Castelo	54.5	5	20.3	1	6.3	-	4.8	-	7.7	-	6
Vila Real	62.5	5	20.3	1	4.1	-	1.4	-	5.0	-	6
Viseu	64.1	8	17.9	2	2.9	-	1.7	-	7.0	-	10
zEurope	37.0	1	28.4	1	15.9	-	4.9	-	6.6	-	2
zRest of the World	63.2	2	7.3	-	1.4	-	1.7	-	19.9	-	2
Total	50.2	148	22.2	60	12.1	31	4.9	7	4.4	4	250
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

• 
  Most voted political force by district (Azores and Madeira not shown).
• 
  Most voted political force by municipality.

References

1. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
2. Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
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. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1987 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
7. "Evolução da Comunicação Política e Eleitoral em Portugal" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
8. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1987 – CDU – AUTOCOLANTES". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
9. "Campanha eleitoral do PRD". RTP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
10. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1987 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
11. "O que mudam os debates na TV". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 4 September 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
12. "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-02.

Further reading

• David B. Goldey, "The Portuguese elections of 1987 and 1991 and the presidential election of 1991." Electoral Studies 11.2 (1992): 171–176.

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