Portuguese legislative election, 1999

Portuguese legislative election, 1999

10 October 1999
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   126px Leader António Guterres José Manuel Barroso Party PS PSD Leader since 23 February 1992 27 May 1999 Leader's seat Castelo Branco Lisbon Last election 112 seats, 43.8% 88 seats, 34.1% Seats won 115 81 Seat change 3 7 Popular vote 2,385,922 1,750,158 Percentage 44.1% 32.3% Swing 0.3% 1.8%
Prime Minister before election Guterres PS Elected Prime Minister Guterres PS

Portugal

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1999 took place on 10 October. The Socialist Party was aiming a second term under the lead of António Guterres, in the end the Socialist Party won the election, but missed what would be an historical absolute majority for the party by only one MP.

The Social Democratic party under the lead of José Manuel Durão Barroso was still away from the preferences of the majority of the Portuguese people, after the ten years cycle under the lead of Cavaco Silva that had terminated four years before. The Democratic Unity Coalition achieved an important climb in the scorecard, against those who predicted its irreversible decline after the end of the Socialist Bloc in the early 1990s. For the first time, the Left Bloc, formed after the merger of several minor left-wing parties became represented in the parliament after electing two MPs. Turnout in this election was very low, only being surpassed in 2009 and 2011 when turnout was just less than 60%.

Voter turnout reached only 61% of voters, one of the lowest ever recorded.

Parties

The major parties involved were listed with their leaders:

• Left Bloc (BE), Francisco Louçã
• Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), Carlos Carvalhas
• Socialist Party (PS), António Guterres
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), José Manuel Durão Barroso
• People's Party (CDS–PP), Paulo Portas

António Guterres, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the second time, and missed the absolute majority by one MP, achieving exactly half of the 230 MPs.

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 1995 and 1999 for reference.

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

Date Released	Polling Firm	PS	PSD	CDU	CDS-PP	BE	Others	Lead
10 Oct 1999	Leg. Election	44.1 115 seats	32.3 81 seats	9.0 17 seats	8.3 15 seats	2.4 2 seats	3.9 0 seats	11.8
2 Oct	Euroexpansão	50.0	32.0	6.0	8.0	2.0	2.0	18.0
1 Oct	SEEDS	47.0	32.0	8.0	7.0	1.0	5.0	15.0
1 Oct	Metris	48.0	31.0	7.0	7.0	1.0	6.0	17.0
1 Oct	Universidade Católica	47.2	30.0	7.9	7.2	2.8	4.9	17.2
30 Sep	Marktest	46.2	30.7	10.6	4.2	2.8	5.5	15.5
30 Sep	Aximage	49.0	33.0	7.0	6.0	1.0	4.0	16.0
1999
1 Oct 1995	Leg. Election	43.8 112 seats	34.1 88 seats	8.6 15 seats	9.1 15 seats	Did not exist	4.4 0 seats	9.7

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 10 October 1999 Assembly of the Republic elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
					1995	1999	±	%	±
	Socialist	2,385,922	44.06	0.3	112	115	3	50.00	1.3	1.13
	Social Democratic	1,750,158	32.32	1.8	88	81	7	35.22	3.1	1.09
	Democratic Unity Coalition	487,058	8.99	0.4	15	17	2	7.39	0.9	0.82
	People's	451,643	8.34	0.7	15	15	0	6.52	0.0	0.78
	Left Bloc	132,333	2.44	—	—	2	—	0.87	—	0.36
	Workers' Communist Party	40,006	0.74	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Earth Party	19,938	0.37	0.3	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	People's Monarchist Party	16,522	0.31	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	National Solidarity Party	11,488	0.21	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Humanist Party	7,346	0.14	—	—	0	—	0.00	—	0.0
	Workers Party of Socialist Unity	4,104	0.08	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Party of the Atlantic	438	0.01	0.0	0	0	0	0.00	0.0	0.0
Total valid		5,306,956	98.00	0.1	230	230	0	100.00	0.0	—
Blank ballots		56,964	1.05	0.3
Invalid ballots		51,230	0.95	0.1
Total (turnout 61.09%)		5,415,102	100.00	5.2
A Portuguese Communist Party (15 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition. B Democratic Party of the Atlantic electoral list only in Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share
PS			44.06%
PSD			32.32%
CDU			8.99%
CDS-PP			8.34%
BE			2.44%
Others/Invalides			3.86%

External links

• Preliminary results of the 1999 election
• Comissão Nacional de Eleições
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

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