2005 Portuguese legislative election

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2005 Portuguese legislative election
← 2002 20 February 2005 2009 →
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered8,944,508 Increase0.5%
Turnout5,747,834 (64.3%)
Increase2.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
  José Sócrates 2006b (cropped).jpg Pedro Santana Lopes 01.jpg Jerónimo de Sousa 2007b (cropped).jpg
Leader José Sócrates Pedro Santana Lopes Jerónimo de Sousa
Party PS PSD PCP
Alliance CDU
Leader since 24 September 2004 29 July 2004 27 November 2004
Leader's seat Castelo Branco[2] Lisbon[3] Lisbon[1]
Last election 96 seats, 37.8% 105 seats, 40.2% 12 seats, 6.9%
Seats won 121 75 14
Seat change Increase 25 Decrease 30 Increase 2
Popular vote 2,588,312 1,653,425 433,369
Percentage 45.0% 28.8% 7.5%
Swing Increase 7.2 pp Decrease 11.4 pp Increase 0.6 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
  Paulo Portas 2009 (cropped).jpg Francisco Louçã 2009 (cropped).jpg
Leader Paulo Portas Francisco Louçã
Party CDS–PP BE
Leader since 22 March 1998 24 March 1999
Leader's seat Aveiro[4] Lisbon[5]
Last election 14 seats, 8.7% 3 seats, 2.7%
Seats won 12 8
Seat change Decrease 2 Increase 5
Popular vote 416,415 364,971
Percentage 7.2% 6.4%
Swing Decrease 1.5 pp Increase 3.6 pp
2005 Portuguese legislative election - Results.svg
Prime Minister before election

Pedro Santana Lopes
PSD

Elected Prime Minister

José Sócrates
PS

The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

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 in July 2004, 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 the 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, abortion and even José Sócrates's alleged homosexuality.[6][7]

Headed by Sócrates, the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) won the election with a landslide victory, winning in 19 of the 22 electoral constituencies, including in districts such as Viseu and Bragança that historically voted for the right. The Socialist Party conquered its first absolute majority, receiving 45% of the electorate vote and 52% of the seats in the Parliament. The centre-right 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.

Background[]

PS 2004 leadership election[]

On early July 2004, PS leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues resigned from the leadership against President Jorge Sampaio decision to nominate Pedro Santana Lopes as Prime Minister, following the resignation of Durão Barroso, rather than calling a snap legislative election.[8] New elections to select a new leader were called for 25 and 26 September 2004. Former environment minister José Sócrates, Manuel Alegre and the son of former President Mário Soares, João Soares, contested the leadership ballot.[9] José Sócrates was elected by a landslide[10] and the results were the following:

Ballot: 25 and 26 September 2004
Candidate Votes %
José Sócrates 18,432 78.6
Manuel Alegre 3,903 16.7
João Soares 927 4.0
Blank/Invalid ballots 175 0.7
Turnout 23,437
Source: Results

PCP 2004 leadership election[]

In the fall of 2004, PCP leader Carlos Carvalhas decided to step down from the party's leadership after 12 years in the post.[11] Jerónimo de Sousa was selected as candidate for the leadership and was elected in the party's congress during the weekend of 27 and 28 November 2004.[12] The results were the following:

Ballot: 27 November 2004
Candidate Votes %
Jerónimo de Sousa 164 93.7
Against 1 0.6
Abstention 10 5.7
Turnout 175
Source: Results

Electoral system[]

The Assembly of the Republic has 230 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 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.[13]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[14] 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.[15]

For these elections, and compared with the 2002 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[16]

District Number of MPs
Lisbon 48
Porto 38
Braga 18
Setúbal 17
Aveiro 15
Leiria 10
Santarém 10
Coimbra 10
Viseu 9
Faro 8
Madeira 6 (+1)
Viana do Castelo 6
Azores 5
Vila Real 5
Castelo Branco 5
Guarda 4
Bragança 4
Beja 3
Évora 3
Portalegre 2 (-1)
Europe 2
Outside Europe 2

Parties[]

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 9th legislature (2002-2005) and that also partook in the election:

Name Ideology Political position Leader 2002 result
Votes (%) Seats
PPD/PSD Social Democratic Party
Partido Social Democrata 		Liberal conservatism
Classical liberalism 		Centre-right Pedro Santana Lopes 40.2%
105 / 230
PS Socialist Party
Partido Socialista 		Social democracy Centre-left José Sócrates 37.8%
96 / 230
CDS-PP CDS – People's Party
Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular 		Christian democracy
Conservatism 		Centre-right
to right-wing 		Paulo Portas 8.7%
14 / 230
PCP Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português 		Communism
Marxism–Leninism 		Far-left Jerónimo de Sousa 6.9%
[a]
10 / 230
PEV Ecologist Party "The Greens"
Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" 		Eco-socialism
Green politics 		Left-wing Heloísa Apolónia
2 / 230
BE Left Bloc
Bloco de Esquerda 		Democratic socialism
Anti-capitalism 		Left-wing Francisco Louçã 2.7%
3 / 230

Campaign period[]

Party slogans[]

Party or alliance Original slogan English translation Refs
PSD « Por amor a Portugal. » "For love of Portugal" [17]
PS « Voltar a acreditar em Portugal » "Believing in Portugal again" [18]
CDS–PP « O voto útil para Portugal » "The useful vote for Portugal" [19]
CDU « Agora é consigo » "Now it's up to you" [20]
BE « Faz toda a diferença » "It makes all the difference" [21]

Candidates' debates[]

2005 Portuguese legislative election debates
Date Organisers Moderator(s)     P  Present    A  Absent invitee  N  Non-invitee 
PSD
Santana 		PS
Sócrates 		CDS–PP
Portas 		CDU
Jerónimo 		BE
Louçã 		Refs
18 Jan SIC Notícias N N N P P [22]
20 Jan SIC Notícias N N P N P [23]
25 Jan SIC Notícias N N P P N [22]
3 Feb RTP2,
SIC,
Antena 1,
TSF


P P N N N [24]
15 Feb RTP1
P P P P P [25]
Candidate viewed as "most convincing" in each debate
Date Organisers Polling firm/Link
PSD PS CDS–PP CDU BE Notes
3 Feb RTP2, SIC, Antena 1, TSF Aximage 20.2 50.4 N/A N/A N/A 29.6% Tie

Opinion polling[]

Main article: Opinion polling for the Portuguese legislative election, 2005

National summary of votes and seats[]

Summary of the 20 February 2005 Assembly of the Republic elections results
AR Eleicoes 2005.svg
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
2002 2005 ± % ±
Socialist 2,588,312 45.03 Increase7.2 96 121 Increase25 52.61 Increase10.9 1.17
Social Democratic[b] 1,653,261 28.76 Decrease11.4 105 75 Decrease30 32.61 Decrease13.0 1.13
Unitary Democratic Coalition[c] 433,243 7.54 Increase0.6 12 14 Increase2 6.09 Increase0.9 0.81
People's 416,415 7.25 Decrease1.5 14 12 Decrease2 5.22 Decrease0.9 0.72
Left Bloc 364,909 6.35 Increase3.6 3 8 Increase5 3.48 Increase2.2 0.55
Portuguese Workers' Communist 48,186 0.84 Increase0.2 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
New Democracy 40,358 0.70 N/A N/A 0 N/A 0.00 N/A 0.0
Humanist 17,182 0.30 Increase0.1 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
National Renovator 9,374 0.16 Increase0.1 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 5,535 0.10 Increase0.0 0 0 Steady0 0.00 Steady0.0 0.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic 1,618 0.03 N/A N/A 0 N/A 0.00 N/A 0.0
Total valid 5,578,393 97.06 Decrease1.0 230 230 Steady0 100.00 Steady0.0 —
Blank ballots 103,537 1.80 Increase0.8
Invalid ballots 65,515 1.14 Increase0.2
Total 5,747,608 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 8,944,508 64.26 Increase2.8
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%
PND
 
 0.70%
Others
 
 0.59%
Blank/Invalid
 
 2.94%
Parliamentary seats
PS
 
 52.61%
PSD
 
 32.61%
CDU
 
 6.09%
CDS-PP
 
 5.22%
BE
 
 3.48%

Distribution by constituency[]

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
Évora 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

Maps[]

  • Most voted political force by municipality.

  • Share of vote for CDU by district.

Graphics[]

  • Seats won by party.

  • Gains and losses by party.

  • Share of vote by party.

Further reading[]

  • Freire, André; Marina Costa Lobo (May 2006). "The Portuguese 2005 legislative election: Return to the left". West European Politics. 29 (3): 581–588. doi:10.1080/01402380600620742.

Notes[]

  1. ^ The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" (PEV) contested the 2002 election in a coalition called Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU) and won a combined 6.9% of the vote and elected 12 MPs to parliament.
  2. ^ From the Social Democratic electoral lists were elected two MPs from the People's Monarchist Party and other two MPs from Earth Party.
  3. ^ Portuguese Communist Party (12 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs).

References[]

  1. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  2. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  3. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  4. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  5. ^ Assembleia da República - Deputados e Grupos Parlamentares
  6. ^ Santos Costa, Filipe (2 February 2005). "Santana nega ter feito insinuações" [Santana denies having made insinuations]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  7. ^ Paixão, Paulo (23 September 2009). "Temas que marcaram a campanha das legislativas de 2005" [Themes that marked the 2005 election campaign]. Expresso (in Portuguese). Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  8. ^ "Ferro Rodrigues demite-se da liderança do PS ", Público, 9 July 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  9. ^ "DEBATER AS IDEIAS ESCOLHER OS PROTAGONISTAS", Acção Socialista, 29 July 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Sócrates eleito Secretário Geral do PS", RTP, 26 September 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Carlos Carvalhas abandona liderança do PCP", Público, 5 October 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  12. ^ "PCP: Jerónimo de Sousa eleito secretário-geral", Público, 28 November 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  14. ^ "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  15. ^ Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  16. ^ "Mapa Oficial n.º 5-A/2004" (PDF). CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - DR I Série-A, nº 301, 27 de Dezembro de 2004. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  17. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. ^ "PS recusa proposta de debate entre José Sócrates e Santana Lopes". TVI (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. ^ "Documents". PCP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. ^ "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – BE". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  22. ^ a b "Televisões apostam nos debates políticos". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 18 January 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Portas e Louçã travaram debate aceso a propósito do aborto e da banca". Público (in Portuguese). 21 January 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  24. ^ "Debate inovador ao estilo americano". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 3 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  25. ^ "DEBATE: LEGISLATIVAS 2005". RTP1 (in Portuguese). 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

External links[]

See also[]

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