Portuguese legislative election, 2002

Portuguese legislative election, 2002
Portugal
17 March 2002

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader José Manuel Barroso Ferro Rodrigues
Party PSD PS
Leader since 27 May 1999 20 January 2002
Leader's seat Lisbon[1] Lisbon[2]
Last election 81 seats, 32.3% 115 seats, 44.1%
Seats won 105 96
Seat change Increase 24 Decrease 19
Popular vote 2,200,765 2,068,584
Percentage 40.2% 37.8%
Swing Increase 7.9% Decrease 6.3%

Prime Minister before election

António Guterres
PS

Elected Prime Minister

José Manuel Barroso
PSD

Portugal

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

The Portuguese legislative election of 2002 took place on 17 March. These elections were called after the resignation of the former Prime-Minister, António Guterres after a defeat of the Socialist Party in the local elections. That fact, plus the problematic state of the country's finances were the main arguments of the right-wing parties, which led them to win the election.

With just over 40% of the votes cast, the Social Democrats regained the status as the largest political force in Portugal, although the Socialists won almost 38% of the vote. This was, and still is, the smallest difference between the two major parties in Portugal. This short distance also appears on the electoral map, with each party winning eleven of the 22 districts, where the PS won the most populous, Lisbon and Porto. As a result, the Social Democrats fail to win the absolute majority they had between 1987 and 1995.

As no Party got an absolute majority, the Social Democrats formed a coalition with the right-wing People's Party. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition achieved the lowest result ever, finishing in the third place in its traditional strongholds, Évora and Setúbal. The Left Bloc gained one MP. Turnout was slightly higher than it was in 1999 but remained quite low, marking a growing separation between the politics and the Portuguese people, mainly due to the image of the politicians as corrupts and the idea that all the parties are the same.

Voter turnout was slightly higher than in 1999, as 61.5% of the electorate cast a ballot.

Parties

The major parties involved and the respective leaders were:

José Manuel Durão Barroso, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister and formed a coalition government with the People's Party.

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 1999 and 2002 for reference.

Date Released Polling Firm PSD PS CDU CDS-PP BE Others Lead
17 Mar 2002 Leg. Election 40.2
105 seats
37.8
96 seats
6.9
12 seats
8.7
14 seats
2.7
3 seats
3.7
0 seats
2.4
17 Mar (20:00) RTP1 - Universidade Católica 37.0 – 42.0 36.0 – 41.0 5.5 – 8.0 7.5 – 10.0 3.0 – 4.0
1.0
17 Mar (20:00) SIC - Eurosondagem 40.1 – 43.9 35.5 – 39.3 6.2 – 8.4 6.2 – 8.4 2.0 – 3.4
4.6
17 Mar (20:00) TVI - INTERCAMPUS 37.8 – 42.8 35.5 – 40.5 6.8 – 9.8 5.3 – 8.3 1.6 – 4.2
2.3
Exit polls
15 Mar Marktest 44.0 35.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 3.0 9.0
15 Mar Lusófona 43.6 40.9 5.7 7.1 2.8 N/A 2.7
15 Mar Eurosondagem 41.4 39.3 6.9 5.6 3.5 3.3 2.1
15 Mar Eurequipa 44.7 33.9 7.1 9.1 3.2 2.0 10.8
15 Mar Universidade Católica 42.2 37.5 6.9 6.8 3.6 3.0 4.7
14 Mar INTERCAMPUS 41.0 39.0 8.0 5.0 3.0 4.0 2.0
14 Mar Aximage 44.0 40.0 7.0 6.0 2.0 1.0 4.0
13 Mar SIC/Visão 41.0 36.2 6.6 5.2 2.0 9.0 4.8
8 Mar Marktest 43.0 36.0 6.0 7.0 4.0 4.0 7.0
2 Mar Eurosondagem 38.0 35.0 6.0 5.0 2.0 14.0 3.0
2002
10 Oct 1999 Leg. Election 32.3
81 seats
44.1
115 seats
9.0
17 seats
8.3
15 seats
2.4
2 seats
3.9
0 seats
11.9%

National summary of votes and seats

 Summary of the 17 March 2002 Assembly of the Republic elections results
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
1999 2002 ± % ±
Social Democratic 2,200,76540.21Increase7.981105Increase2445.65Increase10.41.14
Socialist 2,068,58437.79Decrease6.311596Decrease1941.74Decrease8.31.10
People's 477,3508.72Increase0.41514Decrease16.09Decrease0.40.70
Democratic Unity Coalition[A] 379,8706.94Decrease2.11712Decrease55.22Decrease2.20.75
Left Bloc 149,9662.74Increase0.323Increase11.30Increase0.40.47
Workers' Communist Party 36,1930.66Decrease0.000Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Earth Party 15,5400.28Decrease0.100Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
People's Monarchist Party 12,3980.23Decrease0.100Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Humanist Party 11,4720.21Increase0.100Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
National Renovator Party 4,7120.09 N/A N/A0 N/A0.00 N/A0.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 4,3160.08Steady0.000Steady00.00Steady0.00.0
Left Bloc / People's Democratic Union[B] 3,9110.07 N/A N/A0 N/A0.00 N/A0.0
Total valid 5,365,881 98.03 Increase0.0 230 230 Steady0 100.00 Steady0.0
Blank ballots 55,1211.01Decrease0.1
Invalid ballots 52,6530.96Increase0.0
Total (turnout 61.48%) 5,473,655 100.00 Increase0.4
A Portuguese Communist Party (10 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[3]
B Left Bloc / People's Democratic Union joint electoral list only in Madeira.
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
Vote share
PSD
 
40.21%
PS
 
37.79%
CDS-PP
 
8.72%
CDU
 
6.94%
BE
 
2.74%
Others/Invalides
 
3.59%

Further reading

References

External links

See also

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