Portuguese legislative election, 2005

Portuguese legislative election, 2005

20 February 2005
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader José Sócrates Pedro Santana Lopes Party PS PSD Leader since 24 September 2004 29 June 2004 Leader's seat Castelo Branco Lisbon Last election 96 seats, 37.8% 105 seats, 40.2% Seats won 121 75 Seat change 25 30 Popular vote 2,588,312 1,653,425 Percentage 45.0% 28.8% Swing 7.2% 11.4%
250px The first and the second most voted parties in each district (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Prime Minister before election Santana Lopes PSD Elected Prime Minister Sócrates PS

The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on 20 February. These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on 30 November 2004 to dissolve the Parliament as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by Pedro Santana Lopes (PSD) in coalition with the PP. Santana Lopes had become Prime-Minister after José Manuel Durão Barroso left the country in order to become President of the European Commission in a decision that divided the country, because many Portuguese were expecting that the Socialist President Jorge Sampaio would dissolve parliament and call a legislative election. However, after five unstable months, president Sampaio decided to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections. The Prime Minister nevertheless announced the resignation of the government on 11 December, in an action with no practical effects whatsoever.

The campaign started officially on 6 February and the major topics were the problematic state of the country's finances, unemployment and abortion.

The right-wing parties, mainly the Social Democrats, were punished for their performance in government, and lost more than 11% of votes they had garnered in the previous election. On the left, the Left Bloc achieved its best result ever and made the biggest climb, gaining 5 MPs, while the CDU (Communists and the Greens) gained 2 MPs and reversed their downward trend of the last elections.

Voter turnout was the highest since 1995, as 64.3% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Parties

The parties that partook in the election, and their leaders, were:

• Left Bloc (BE), Francisco Louçã
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Jerónimo de Sousa
• Socialist Party (PS), José Sócrates
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Pedro Santana Lopes
• People's Party (CDS–PP), Paulo Portas

With 230 seats the results are:

• Socialist Party (PS): 121 - Absolute Majority
• Social Democratic Party (PSD): 75
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU): 14
• People's Party (CDS–PP): 12
• Left Bloc (BE): 8

José Sócrates, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

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 2002 and 2005 for reference.

Date Released	Polling Firm	PS	PSD	CDS-PP	CDU	BE	Others	Lead
20 Feb 2005	Leg. Election	45.0 121 seats	28.8 75 seats	7.2 12 seats	7.5 14 seats	6.4 8 seats	5.1 0 seats	16.2
18 Feb	Aximage	46.8	29.6	7.3	7.0	5.5	3.8	17.2
18 Feb	Marktest	46.0	26.8	7.5	8.9	7.7	3.1	19.2
18 Feb	Eurosondagem	45.0	30.6	7.7	7.7	5.7	3.3	14.4
18 Feb	IPOM	46.0	30.0	8.0	6.0	7.0	3.0	16.0
18 Feb	INTERCAMPUS	45.9	30.3	7.1	7.6	5.2	3.9	15.6
17 Feb	TNS/Euroteste	39.0	28.0	7.0	6.0	6.0	14.0	11.0
17 Feb	Universidade Católica	46.0	31.0	6.0	7.0	7.0	3.0	15.0
12 Feb	Eurosondagem	44.4	31.3	7.4	6.9	6.4	3.6	13.1
11 Feb	Aximage	44.7	27.4	6.4	7.1	4.8	9.6	17.3
4 Feb	IPOM	49.0	31.0	8.0	6.0	5.0	1.0	18.0
4 Feb	Aximage	43.5	29.3	7.0	5.6	3.5	11.1	14.2
3 Feb	INTERCAMPUS	46.5	31.6	4.8	8.1	4.5	4.5	14.9
29 Jan	Eurosondagem	46.1	32.1	7.0	6.6	4.6	3.6	14.0
28 Jan	Marktest	45.1	27.7	6.3	7.7	8.1	5.1	17.5
28 Jan	Aximage	43.3	27.4	6.3	5.8	5.0	12.2	15.9
28 Jan	Universidade Católica	46.0	28.0	6.0	8.0	8.0	4.0	18.0
27 Jan	TNS/Euroteste	40.0	32.0	6.0	4.0	5.0	13.0	8.0
21 Jan	Axiamge	42.8	28.7	7.1	6.2	4.3	10.9	14.1
2005
17 Mar 2002	Leg. Election	37.8 96 seats	40.2 105 seats	8.7 14 seats	6.9 12 seats	2.7 3 seats	3.7 3 seats	2.4

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 20 February 2005 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					2002	2005	±	%	±
	Socialist	2,588,312	45.03	7.2	96	121	25	52.61	10.9	1.17
	Social Democratic	1,653,425	28.77	11.4	105	75	30	32.61	13.0	1.13
	Unitary Democratic Coalition	433,369	7.54	0.6	12	14	2	6.09	0.9	0.81
	People's	416,415	7.24	1.5	14	12	2	5.22	0.9	0.72
	Left Bloc	364,971	6.35	3.6	3	8	5	3.48	2.2	0.55
	Portuguese Workers' Communist	48,186	0.84	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	New Democracy	40,358	0.70	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Humanist Party	17,056	0.30	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	National Renovator Party	9,374	0.16	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	5,535	0.10	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	1,681	0.03	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
Total valid		5,578,782	97.06	1.0	230	230	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		103,537	1.80	0.8
Invalid ballots		65,515	1.14	0.2
Total (turnout 64.26%)		5,747,834	100.00	2.8
A From the Social Democratic electoral lists were elected two MPs from the People's Monarchist Party and other two MPs from Earth Party. B Portuguese Communist Party (12 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition. C Democratic Party of the Atlantic electoral list only in Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share
PS			45.03%
PSD			28.77%
CDU			7.54%
CDS-PP			7.24%
BE			6.35%
PCTP/MRPP			0.84%
Others/Invalides			4.23%

Distribution by constituency

File:Portugal federal elections 2005 - seats.svg

Seats

File:Portugal federal elections 2005 - party list seats gains and losts.svg

Party list seats gains and losts

File:Portugal federal elections 2005.svg

Percents of votes

 Results of the 2005 election of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic by constituency

Constituency	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	Total S
	PS		PSD		CDU		CDS-PP		BE
Azores	53.1	3	34.4	2	1.7	-	4.0	-	2.9	-	5
Aveiro	41.1	8	35.7	6	3.5	-	9.8	1	5.1	-	15
Beja	51.0	2	12.3	-	24.1	1	2.9	-	4.7	-	3
Braga	45.4	9	32.9	7	4.8	1	7.8	1	4.6	-	18
Bragança	42.1	2	39.0	2	2.0	-	9.7	-	2.5	-	4
Castelo Branco	56.0	4	26.7	1	3.8	-	5.3	-	3.7	-	5
Coimbra	45.4	6	31.9	4	5.5	-	5.5	-	6.3	-	10
EvoraÉvora	49.7	2	16.7	-	20.9	1	3.7	-	4.6	-	3
Faro	49.3	6	24.6	2	6.9	-	5.8	-	7.7	-	8
Guarda	46.8	2	34.7	2	2.9	-	7.0	-	3.4	-	4
Leiria	35.6	4	39.8	5	4.6	-	8.9	1	5.5	-	10
Lisbon	44.1	23	23.7	12	9.8	5	8.2	4	8.8	4	48
Madeira	35.0	3	45.2	3	3.6	-	6.6	-	3.8	-	6
Portalegre	54.9	2	20.2	-	12.1	-	4.2	-	4.6	-	2
Porto	48.5	20	27.8	12	5.4	2	6.9	2	6.7	2	38
Santarém	46.1	6	26.4	3	8.6	1	6.9	-	6.5	-	10
Setúbal	43.6	8	16.1	3	20.0	3	5.1	1	10.3	2	17
Viana do Castelo	42.0	3	33.5	2	3.8	-	11.4	1	4.5	-	6
Vila Real	43.8	3	40.2	2	2.6	-	6.8	-	2.4	-	5
Viseu	40.4	4	40.2	4	2.2	-	8.6	1	3.3	-	9
Europe	54.3	1	27.2	1	4.2	-	3.4	-	2.3	-	2
Rest of the World	26.3	-	57.7	2	1.0	-	3.5	-	0.7	-	2
Total	45.0	121	28.8	75	7.5	14	7.2	12	6.4	8	230
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

External links

• Preliminary results of the 2005 election
• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal