Portuguese legislative election, 1985

The Portuguese legislative election of 1985 took place on October 6. In June of the same year, the former Prime-Minister, Mário Soares, had resigned from the job due to the lack of parliamentary support, the government was composed by a coalition of the two major parties, the center-right Social Democratic and the center-left Socialist, in what was called the "Central Bloc", however this was an unstable balance of forces and several members of each party opposed such alliance. The new leader of the Social Democratic Party, Cavaco Silva, elected in May, was among those that never supported such alliance, and short after being elected leader of the party made the coalition fall in July.

A new election was called by the President and the Social Democrats won with a short majority and Cavaco became the Prime-Minister. Meanwhile, a new party had been founded by supporters of the President Ramalho Eanes, the Democratic Renovator Party, led by Hermínio Martinho that surprisingly gained 45 MPs in the election and became the parliamentary support of the Cavaco's government until 1987, when it removed its support, making Cavaco fall. The Communists and the Socialists lost votes and MPs and the left would only return to the government ten years later, in 1995.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

*United People Alliance (APU), Álvaro Cunhal
*Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Almeida Santos
*Democratic Renovator Party (PRD), Hermínio Martinho
*Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
*Democratic Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the first time.

National summary of votes and seats

* Registered Voters: 7,818,981
* Turnout: 74.16%

Notes:
*APU was composed by the PCP (Communist) (35 MPs) and the MDP/CDE (Socialist) (3 MPs)."

(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