Portuguese legislative election, 1999

10 October 1999

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	António Guterres	José Manuel Barroso
Party	PS	PSD
Leader since	23 February 1992	27 May 1999
Leader's seat	Castelo Branco^[1]	Lisbon^[2]
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

António Guterres
PS

Elected Prime Minister

António 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 Socialists won the election, but missed what would be an historical absolute majority for the party by just 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
Unitary Democratic Coalition (CDU), Carlos Carvalhas
Socialist Party (PS), António Guterres
Social Democratic Party (PPD/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

National summary of votes and seats

**Summary of the 10 October 1999 Assembly of the Republic elections results**
Parties		Votes	%	±	MPs					MPs %/ votes %
Parties		Votes	%	±	1995	1999	±	%	±	MPs %/ votes %
	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
	Unitary Democratic Coalition^[A]	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	N/A	N/A	2	N/A	0.87	N/A	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	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	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	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0.00	N/A	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^[B]	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.^[3] ^B Democratic Party of the Atlantic electoral list only in Azores.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Vote share

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

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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Date Released	Polling Firm	PS	PSD	CDU	CDS-PP	BE	Others	Lead
Date Released	Polling Firm						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