2005 Portuguese legislative election

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

2005 Portuguese legislative election
20 February 2005
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered8,944,508 0.5%
Turnout5,747,834 (64.3%)
2.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
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[1] Lisbon[2] Lisbon[3]
Last election 96 seats, 37.8% 105 seats, 40.2% 12 seats, 6.9%
Seats won 121 75 14
Seat change 25 30 2
Popular vote 2,588,312 1,653,425 433,369
Percentage 45.0% 28.8% 7.5%
Swing 7.2 pp 11.4 pp 0.6 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
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 2 5
Popular vote 416,415 364,971
Percentage 7.2% 6.4%
Swing 1.5 pp 3.6 pp
Prime Minister before election

Pedro Santana Lopes
PSD

 Elected Prime Minister

José Sócrates
PS

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.

A curiosity about this election is that, as of 2020, both leaders of the two main parties, José Sócrates and Pedro Santana Lopes, are no longer members of their respective parties.[8][9]

Voter turnout was the highest since 1995, as 64.3% of the electorate cast a ballot.

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.[10]

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[11] 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.[12]

For these elections, and compared with the 2002 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:[13]

DistrictNumber of MPs
Lisbon48
Porto38
Braga18
Setúbal17
Aveiro15
Leiria10
Santarém10
Coimbra10
Viseu9
Faro8
Madeira6 (+1)
Viana do Castelo6
Azores5
Vila Real5
Castelo Branco5
Guarda4
Bragança4
Beja3
Évora3
Portalegre2 (-1)
Europe2
Outside Europe2

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%
[lower-alpha 1]
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" [14]
PS « Voltar a acreditar em Portugal » "Believing in Portugal again" [15]
CDS–PP « O voto útil para Portugal » "The useful vote for Portugal" [16]
CDU « Agora é consigo » "Now it's up to you" [17]
BE « Faz toda a diferença » "It makes all the difference" [18]

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 [19]
20 Jan SIC Notícias N N P N P [20]
25 Jan SIC Notícias N N P P N [19]
3 Feb RTP2,
SIC,
Antena 1,
TSF		 Maria Flor Pedroso
Rodrigo Guedes de Carvalho
José Gomes Ferreira
Ricardo Costa		 P P N N N [21]
15 Feb RTP1 Judite de Sousa
José Alberto Carvalho		 P P P P P [22]
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
Parties Votes % ± MPs MPs %/
votes %
2002 2005 ± % ±
Socialist 2,588,31245.037.2961212552.6110.91.17
Social Democratic[A] 1,653,26128.7611.4105753032.6113.01.13
Unitary Democratic Coalition[B] 433,2437.540.6121426.090.90.81
People's 416,4157.251.5141225.220.90.72
Left Bloc 364,9096.353.63853.482.20.55
Portuguese Workers' Communist 48,1860.840.20000.000.00.0
New Democracy 40,3580.70N/AN/A0N/A0.00N/A0.0
Humanist 17,1820.300.10000.000.00.0
National Renovator 9,3740.160.10000.000.00.0
Workers Party of Socialist Unity 5,5350.100.00000.000.00.0
Democratic Party of the Atlantic[C] 1,6180.03N/AN/A0N/A0.00N/A0.0
Total valid 5,578,393 97.06 1.0 230 230 0 100.00 0.0 —
Blank ballots 103,5371.800.8
Invalid ballots 65,5151.140.2
Total 5,747,608 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 8,944,50864.262.8
A From the Social Democratic electoral lists were elected two MPs from the People's Monarchist Party and other two MPs from Earth Party.
B Portuguese Communist Party (12 MPs) and "The Greens" (2 MPs) ran in coalition.[23]
C Democratic Party of the Atlantic electoral list only in Azores.
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
EvoraÉvora 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.

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. Tavares, Rita (4 May 2018). "Sócrates entrega o cartão de militante e abandona o PS" [Socrates hands over the membership card and leaves the PS]. Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  9. Porfírio, João (27 Jun 2018). "Santana Lopes deixa o PSD e prepara novo partido" [Santana Lopes leaves PSD and prepares new party]. Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  10. "Constitution of the Portuguese Republic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
  11. "Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  12. Gallaher, Michael (1992). "Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities"
  13. "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.
  14. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  15. "PS recusa proposta de debate entre José Sócrates e Santana Lopes". TVI (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  16. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – CDS". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. "Documents". PCP (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  18. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 2005 – BE". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. "Televisões apostam nos debates políticos". Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese). 18 January 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. "Portas e Louçã travaram debate aceso a propósito do aborto e da banca". Público (in Portuguese). 21 January 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  21. "Debate inovador ao estilo americano". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 3 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  22. "DEBATE: LEGISLATIVAS 2005". RTP1 (in Portuguese). 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  23. "Electoral results - Assembly of the Republic". Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2019-02-17.

See also
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