Constituent Assembly elections were carried out in Portugal on 25 April 1975, exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution. The election elected all 250 members of the Portuguese Constituent Assembly. It was the first free election held in Portugal since

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

, and only the seventh free election in all of Portuguese history. Turnout was a record 91.66 percent, which remains (as of 2022) the highest ever in any Portuguese democratic elections (General, Regional, Local or European). The main aim of the election was the election of a

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, in order to write a new constitution to replace the Estado Novo regime's authoritarian Constitution of 1933 and so this freely-elected parliament had a single-year mandate and no government was based on parliamentary support; the country continued to be governed by a military-civilian provisional administration during the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. With few or no opinion polls during the campaign, the real trend of the electorate was unknown, but incumbent

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Vasco Gonçalves General Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves OA (; Lisbon 3 May 1921 – 11 June 2005) was a Portuguese army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution and later served as the 104th Prime Minister from 18 July 1974 to ...

was confident in a victory of the most leftwing forces in Portugal, forecasting that the

Portuguese Democratic Movement The Portuguese Democratic Movement/Democratic Electoral Commissions (Portuguese: ''Movimento Democrático Português / Comissões Democráticas Eleitorais'', MDP/CDE or just MDP) was one of the most important organizations of the democratic oppo ...

(MDP/CDE) would win the election, followed by the Communists (PCP) and then the Socialist Party (PS). In the end, this forecast was totally wrong. The election was won by the Socialist Party with almost 38% of the votes and 116 seats. The Social Democratic Party (then known as the ''Democratic People's Party'', PPD) was the second-most voted party, 26.4% and 81 seats, defending a project that it would soon abandon, social democratic centrism, the Portuguese "Social-Democracy", and becoming the major right-wing party in the country a few years after. The size of the results of the PPD were a big surprise, taking into account that they won double the votes of the Communists. The new parliament had a large majority of parties defending socialist or "democratic socialist" ideas and the Constitution, approved one year after, reflected such influence. The Portuguese Communist Party achieved a surprisingly low total, just 12%, considering the overwhelming support in the south of the country and the radical turn to the left of the revolutionary process after the failed fascist coup, one month before. With the PPD's shift away from the left and towards the right coming after this election, the only right-of-centre party elected was the

CDS The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

, which received 7.6 percent of the vote and 16 seats. The other big surprise were the very weak results of MDP/CDE, which polled just 4% and elected 5 member to the Assembly. The results map showed a strong North-South division, with the more rightwing forces, PPD and CDS, dominating the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

regions, mainly in rural areas, and the PCP dominating the South, especially the Alentejo region. The PS dominated the big urban areas around Lisbon,

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

and

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

Background

The previous parliamentary elections were held on October 28, 1973, still under the authoritarian rule of the Estado Novo (New State), founded by

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the r ...

who died in 1970. The People's National Action (ANP), the single party of the then President of the Council of Ministers,

Marcelo Caetano Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano (; 17 August 1906 – 26 October 1980) was a Portuguese politician and scholar. He was the second and last leader of the Estado Novo after succeeding António Salazar. He served as prime minister from 196 ...

, had won the all 150 deputies of the National Assembly in the 1973 election, with a participation rate of 66.5% of registered. The election was boycotted by Opposition forces due to complaints about democratic legitimacy and oppression.

1974 revolution

On April 25, 1974, the Carnation Revolution, initiated by the captains of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), ended the authoritarian regime established in 1932 by

. After the revolutionary forces proclaimed victory, the

National Salvation Junta The National Salvation Junta ( pt, Junta de Salvação Nacional, ) was a group of military officers designated to maintain the government of Portugal in April 1974 after the Carnation Revolution had overthrown the '' Estado Novo'' dictatori ...

, presided by General

António de Spínola António Sebastião Ribeiro de Spínola (generally referred to as António de Spínola, ;This surname, however, was not accompanied by the grammatical nobiliary particle "de". 11 April 1910 – 13 August 1996) was a Portuguese military o ...

, takes over the position of Head of State and Government. With political parties once again legal, the Socialist Party (PS) leader,

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th pres ...

, and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) Secretary General,

Álvaro Cunhal Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal (; 10 November 1913 – 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese communist revolutionary and politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of the '' Estado Novo''. He served as secretary-general of the P ...

, return to Portugal less than a week later. In addition, the members of the "liberal wing" of the ANP, favorable to a democratization of the "Estado Novo" before its fall, found the Democratic People's Party (PPD) which claimed to be social democratic. At the end of three weeks, Spínola takes the oath as President of the Republic, and nominates

Adelino da Palma Carlos Adelino da Palma Carlos, GCC, GCIH, GOL (; Faro, 3 May 1905 – Lisbon, 25 October 1992), was a Portuguese lawyer, scholar, politician and a freemason, one of at least five sons of Manuel Carlos and wife Auta Vaz Velho da Palma. He was a ...

Prime Minister as the head of the 1st provisional government where civil and military members plus independent, socialists, social democrats and communists were also part of. As early as July 18,

, a military man seen as very close to the Communist Party, replaces Palma Carlos as head of the government. After this, the first party that doesn't claim to be from the left or the center-left appears, the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), which says to be an advocate to Christian democracy and liberalism. Barely two and a half months later, after failing to carry out a counter-revolution, Spínola resigns as President of the Republic and is replaced by General

Francisco da Costa Gomes Francisco da Costa Gomes, ComTE, GOA (; 30 June 1914 – 31 July 2001) was a Portuguese military officer and politician, the 15th president of Portugal (the second after the Carnation Revolution). Life He was one of the eleven children of A ...

, his deputy in the

. On March 19, 1975, President Costa Gomes officially calls an election to elect members to write a new Constitution.

Electoral system

The electoral system adopted, set by the electoral law approved on November 15, 1974,Electoral Law of 1974
/ref> establishes the election of members of parliament by proportional representation according to the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...

, known to benefit the parties that come first. The law fixes the number of one deputy per 25,000 inhabitants and one more per fraction of 12,500. Deputies were elected in twenty-three constituencies, namely the eighteen metropolitan districts, Horta, Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo, Funchal, Mozambique, Macau, and the rest of the world. In application of these provisions, 250 seats were to be filled. For these elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Parties

The table below lists the major parties that contested the elections:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

On the election night broadcast on

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainst ...

, a debate took place, moderated by

Joaquim Letria Joaquim is the Portuguese and Catalan version of Joachim and may refer to: * Alberto Joaquim Chipande, politician * Eduardo Joaquim Mulémbwè, politician * Joaquim Agostinho (1943–1984), Portuguese professional bicycle racer * Joaquim Amat ...

, on the electoral results revealed so far, with the participation of the leaders of the four main parties at the time:

(

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

), Joaquim Magalhães Mota replacing

Francisco Sá Carneiro Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

(

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portu ...

), and

Francisco Pereira de Moura Francisco Pereira de Moura (1925–1998) was a Portuguese scholar, economist and politician opposed to the Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo regime. He led the ''United Democratic Electoral Commission'' in the rigged Portuguese National Assembl ...

( MDP/CDE). The questions to the guests were asked by a panel of commentators made up of journalists Manuel Beça Múrias, Dinis Abreu, José Júdice, Castro Mendes and José Carlos Vasconcelos.

Opinion polling

Results

Distribution by constituency

, - class="unsortable" !rowspan=2, Constituency!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S!!%!!S !rowspan=2, Total
S , - class="unsortable" style="text-align:center;" !colspan=2 , PS !colspan=2 , PPD !colspan=2 , PCP !colspan=2 ,

!colspan=2 , MDP/CDE !colspan=2 , UDP !colspan=2 , ADIM , - , style="text-align:left;" , Angra do Heroísmo , 23.0 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 62.8 , 2 , 2.4 , - , 6.1 , - , 1.1 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , colspan="2" rowspan="14" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , 31.8 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.9 , 7 , 3.2 , - , 11.1 , 2 , 3.9 , - , 14 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 35.6 , 3 , 5.3 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 39.0 , 3 , 2.2 , - , 5.5 , - , 1.4 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

, 27.4 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 37.7 , 7 , 3.7 , - , 18.0 , 3 , 2.9 , - , - , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , 24.7 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 43.0 , 3 , 2.7 , - , 13.5 , - , 3.7 , - , - , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 41.5 , 5 , 24.3 , 2 , 5.6 , - , 6.4 , - , 3.9 , - , 0.8 , - , 7 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="background:; color:white;", 43.2 , 7 , 27.2 , 4 , 5.7 , 1 , 4.6 , - , 4.4 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 12 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 37.9 , 3 , 6.9 , - , 37.1 , 2 , 2.8 , - , 7.8 , - , 0.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 45.4 , 6 , 13.9 , 1 , 12.3 , 1 , 3.4 , - , 9.5 , 1 , 1.1 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Funchal Funchal () is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it the sixth largest city in Portugal. Because of its high ...

, 19.6 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 61.9 , 5 , 1.7 , - , 10.0 , - , 1.3 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="3" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , 28.2 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 33.3 , 3 , 2.9 , - , 19.5 , 1 , 3.6 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Horta , 23.0 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 67.6 , 1 , 2.4 , - , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3.1 , - , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Leiria , 33.2 , 5 , style="background:; color:white;", 35.6 , 5 , 6.4 , - , 6.8 , 1 , 3.4 , - , 1.1 , - , 11 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Lisbon , style="background:; color:white;", 46.0 , 29 , 15.0 , 9 , 18.9 , 11 , 4.8 , 3 , 4.1 , 2 , 1.7 , 1 , 55 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

, colspan="12" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , style="background:; color:white;", 56.4 , 1 , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 41.1 , 1 , colspan="12" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality ('' concelho'') and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67, ...

, 30.4 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 54.8 , 2 , 1.5 , - , 3.1 , - , 2.7 , - , colspan="4" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 3 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 52.4 , 3 , 9.9 , - , 17.5 , 1 , 4.0 , - , 4.5 , - , 1.2 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="8" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="background:; color:white;", 42.6 , 18 , 29.4 , 12 , 6.7 , 2 , 8.9 , 3 , 2.6 , 1 , 0.6 , - , 36 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 42.9 , 8 , 18.8 , 3 , 15.1 , 2 , 4.3 , - , 4.1 , - , 1.0 , - , 13 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="background:; color:white;", 38.2 , 7 , 5.7 , 1 , 37.8 , 7 , 1.6 , - , 6.0 , 1 , 1.3 , - , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 88,725, in an area of 319.02 km². The urbanized area of the municipality, comprising the city, ...

, 24.5 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 36.0 , 3 , 3.8 , - , 14.5 , 1 , 7.1 , - , colspan="2" rowspan="4" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality cover ...

, 27.1 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 45.8 , 4 , 2.9 , - , 7.2 , - , 2.3 , - , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...

, 21.5 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 43.9 , 6 , 2.3 , - , 17.2 , 2 , 4.0 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Emigration , 34.4 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 45.6 , 1 , colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 4.6 , - , 11.0 , - , 1 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 37.9 , 116 , 26.4 , 81 , 12.5 , 30 , 7.6 , 16 , 4.1 , 5 , 0.8 , 1 , 0.0 , 1 , 250 , - , colspan=16 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Legislativas portuguesas de 1975 (Mapa).png, Most voted political force by

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Notes

References

External links

Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político