Portuguese legislative election, 1983

The Portuguese legislative election of 1983 took place on April 25. The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance and Francisco Sá Carneiro had retained office as Prime Minister with an increased majority. However, Sá Carneiro, along with other important members of the coalition, died in an aircrash only two months after the election, on December 5 1980. Such happenings caused a massive political instability and Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a senior official of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in the Alliance, became Prime Minister. But Balsemão lacked support from such senior members of his party as Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and several ministers resigned. Moreover, the right-wing policy was criticized by the left-wing and by the trade unions, and in February, the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers, with the support of the Communists, called for a general strike that shook the government. The wave of resignations among Balsemão's ministers continued and by the end of the year, he also resigned. Because no one inside the Social Democratic Party accepted the office of Prime Minister, the President Ramalho Eanes dissolved the Parliament and called an election for April.

The election was won by the Socialist Party with 36%, and Mário Soares was nominated Prime Minister. However, the Socialists lacked a majority in the Assembly of the Republic and were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, in what was called the Center Block. Although this coalition allowed Soares to govern, several members of both parties were against it, and internal attacks led to the collapse of the coalition after less than two years. In the election that followed, the Communist-dominated United People Alliance lost 3 MPs and the Democratic Social Center, after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance, was now alone in the Parliament with 30 MPs, a loss of 16. The election marked the beginning of a process of bi-polarization of Portuguese politics.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

*United People Alliance (APU), Álvaro Cunhal
*Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Mário Soares
*Social Democratic Party (PSD), Mota Pinto
*Democratic Social Center (CDS), Lucas Pires

Mário Soares, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

National summary of votes and seats

* Registered Voters: 7,337,064
* Turnout: 77,79%

Notes:

*APU was composed by the PCP (Communist) (41 MPs) and the MDP/CDE (Socialist) (3 MPs)."
*"4 independent MPs of the UEDS and 3 from the ASDI, elected in the lists of the PS, formed a parliamentary group."
* "The UDP and the PSR ran in coalition in the Districts of Lisbon and Oporto."

(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