Portuguese legislative election, 1979

2 December 1979

250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Francisco Sá Carneiro	Mário Soares
Party	AD	PS
Leader since	29 April 1979^{[lower-alpha 1]}	19 April 1973
Leader's seat	Lisbon^[1]	Lisbon^[2]
Last election	115 seats, 40.9%¹	107 seats, 34.9%
Seats won	128	74
Seat change	13	33
Popular vote	2,719,208	1,642,136
Percentage	45.3%	27.3%
Swing	4.4%	7.6%

The first and the second most voted parties in each district
(Azores and Madeira are not shown)

Prime Minister before election

Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo
PS

Elected Prime Minister

Francisco Sá Carneiro
PSD

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 1979 took place on 2 December. The last election, three and a half years before, in April 1976, was won by the Socialist Party under the lead of Mário Soares, who became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government after the revolution. However, the government suffered several attacks and in December 1977, Soares lost the voting of a confidence resolution because all the opposition, the Democratic and Social Center, the Social Democrats and the Communists united in order to vote against it, and so, the Soares' government fell. Soares would become Prime-Minister again in January 1978, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center, but in July this party would force the end of the government due to disagreements about agrarian reform. In August, Nobre da Costa became Prime-Minister by personal decision of the President of President Ramalho Eanes, after a failed attempt to unite the parties on the Parliament. However, the program of Nobre da Costa's government was never approved and two months later, da Costa was replaced by Mota Pinto who would govern with extreme difficulties for less than one year.

In July 1979, the President finally decided to dissolve the Parliament and call for a new election for December. Mota Pinto was replaced in the period between the dissolution and the election by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (the only women to lead a government in Portugal). The right-wing parties, the Social Democratic, the Democratic and Social Center and the People's Monarchist Party united in the Democratic Alliance (Portuguese: Aliança Democrática or AD) under the lead of Sá Carneiro won the election, receiving 43% of the vote. The Socialists lost more than 30 MPs and the Communists, now allied with the Portuguese Democratic Movement in the United People Alliance achieved their highest total ever, with almost 20% of the voting.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

United People Alliance (APU), Álvaro Cunhal
Socialist Party (PS), 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.

National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 2 December 1979 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties			Votes	%	±	Seats
Parties			Votes	%	±	1976	1979	±	%	±
		Democratic Alliance^[A]	2,554,458	42.52	N/A	N/A	121	N/A	48.40	N/A
		Social Democratic^[B]	141,227	2.35	N/A	73	7	N/A	2.80	N/A
		Democratic and Social Centre^[B]	23,523	0.39	N/A	42	0	N/A	0.00	N/A
	Total Democratic Alliance		2,719,208	45.26	4.4¹	115¹	128	13¹	51.20	7.5¹
		Socialist	1,642,136	27.33	7.6	107	74	33	29.60	11.1
		United People Alliance^[C]	1,129,322	18.80	4.4	40	47	7	18.80	3.6
		People's Democratic Union	130,842	2.18	0.5	1	1	0	0.40	0.0
		Christian Democratic Party	72,514	1.21	0.7	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		Workers' Communist Party	53,268	0.89	0.2	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		UEDS	43,325	0.72	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A
		Revolutionary Socialist Party	36,978	0.62	0.5	0	0	0	0.00	0.0
		Workers Party of Socialist Unity	12,713	0.21	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A
		OCMLP	3,433	0.06	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A
Total valid			5,843,739	97.28	2.0	263	250	13	100.00	0.0
Blank ballots			42,863	0.71	—
Invalid ballots			120,851	2.01	2.7
Total (turnout 82.86%)			6,007,453	100.00	0.6
^A Alliance formed by the Social Democratic Party (73 seats), the Democratic and Social Centre (43 seats) and the People's Monarchist Party (5 seats). ^B Social Democratic Party and Democratic and Social Centre electoral list only in Azores and Madeira. ^C Portuguese Communist Party (44 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (3 MPs) ran in coalition.^[3]
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

¹ Democratic Alliance results are compared to the combined totals of the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic and Social Centre and the People's Monarchist Party in the 1976 election.

Vote share

AD			45.26%
PS			27.33%
APU			18.80%
UDP			2.18%
PDC			1.21%
PCTP/MRPP			0.89%
Others/Invalides			4.33%

Notes

↑ As leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

References

External links

Elections and referendums in Portugal

Presidential elections	1911 1915 (May) 1915 (Aug) 1918 (Apr) 1918 (Dec) 1919 1923 1925 1928 1935 1942 1949 1951 1958 1965 1972** 1976 1980 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016

Parliamentary elections	1820 1822 1826 1834 1836 (Jul) 1836 (Nov) 1838 1840 1842 1845 1847 1851 1852 1856 1858 1860 1861 1864 1865 1868 1869 1870 (Mar) 1870 (Sep) 1871 1874 1878 1879 1881 1884 1887 1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1897 1899 1900 1901 1904 1905 1906 (Apr) 1906 (Aug) 1908 1910 1911* 1915 1918 1919 1921 1922 1925 1934 1938 1942 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1975* 1976 1979 1980 1983 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 2002 2005 2009 2011 2015 Next

Local elections	1976 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013

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Referendums	1933 1998 (Jun) 1998 (Nov) 2007

* Constituent Assembly ** Indirect elections See also: Elections in Azores Madeira

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