Portuguese legislative election, 1987

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on July 19. In the last election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had achieved a relative majority, thing that made its government very weak, managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic Social Center and the Democratic Renovator Party, and after the approval of a no confidence resolution from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renovator Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

The election was one by the Social Democratic Party, that with a growing popularity, won with a large majority, the biggest ever in the Portuguese parliamentary history. The left-wing Unitarian Democratic Coalition lost some of its MPs to the Socialist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party lost almost all of its influence, mainly due to its responsibility in the fall of the former government. The right-wing Democratic Social Center lost almost a half of the voting, due to the useful voting effect on the also right-wing, Social Democratic Party.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

*Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
*Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Vítor Constâncio
*Democratic Renovator Party (PRD), Ramalho Eanes
*Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
*Democratic Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

National summary of votes and seats

* Registered Voters: 7,930,668
* Turnout: 71.57%

Notes:
* " CDU is composed by thePCP (Communist) (27 MPs), the PEV (Green) (2 MPs) and the ID (2 MPs)"
* "The MPs of the ID ceased to form a group in July 1988"
* "The MPs of the PRD ceased to form a group in December 1990"

(source: [http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb Portuguese Electoral Commission] )

References

*cite web |title=CNE Resultados |url=http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb| publisher=Comissão Nacional de Eleições| accessdate = 2005-05-17
*cite web |title=Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político|url=http://www.iscsp.utl.pt/~cepp/abertura.php| accessdate = 2005-05-17

ee also

*Politics of Portugal
*List of political parties in Portugal
*Elections in Portugal