The 1983 Portuguese legislative election took place on 25 April. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (AD) and

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 ...

had retained office as

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 is not ...

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 4 December 1980. Such happenings caused a massive political instability and

Francisco Pinto Balsemão Francisco José Pereira Pinto Balsemão (; born 1 September 1937) is a Portuguese businessman, former journalist and retired politician, who served as Prime Minister of Portugal, from 1981 to 1983. Background He is the son of Henrique Patrício ...

, a senior official of the

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 For ...

, the largest party in the Alliance, became Prime Minister. But Balsemão lacked support from such senior members of his party as

Aníbal Cavaco Silva Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC, GColL, GColIH (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist who served as the 19th president of Portugal, in office from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016. He had been previously prime minister of Portugal fro ...

, and several ministers resigned. Moreover, the right-wing policy was criticized by the left-wing and by the trade unions, and in February 1982, the

General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (Portuguese: Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses or CGTP) is the largest trade union federation in Portugal. It was founded informally in 1970, emerged publicly after the Carnatio ...

, with the support of the Communists, called for a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

that shook the government. The wave of resignations among Balsemão's ministers continued and by the end of 1982, and also influenced by the AD's bad results in the 1982 local elections, Balsemão himself also resigned. The Social Democratic Party proposes, to

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Ramalho Eanes Ramalho is a Portuguese surname. Ramalho may refer to: People *João Ramalho (1493–1580), Portuguese explorer *Ramalho Ortigão (1836–1915), Portuguese writer * Rosa Ramalho (1888–1977), Portuguese ceramist * José Ramalho (rower) (1901–?un ...

, a government led by Vítor Crespo, but President Eanes rejects the proposal citing that the political conditions are just too deteriorated, thus he decides to dissolve the Parliament and call an election for April. Shortly after, the AD was dissolved as PSD, CDS and PPM decided to run alone. The election was won by the

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 th ...

with 36%, and

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 presid ...

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, which achieved 27%, in what was called the "

Central Bloc Central Bloc () is the name given in Portugal to the grand coalition of the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries a ...

". 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 and 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. This was the last legislative election to be won by the Socialist Party until

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Background

Leadership changes

CDS 1983 leadership election

After the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance (AD),

Diogo Freitas do Amaral Diogo Pinto de Freitas do Amaral (; 21 July 1941 – 3 October 2019), known as Freitas do Amaral, was a Portuguese politician and law professor. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 10 January 1980 to 12 January 1981 and from 12 March 2005 t ...

resigned from the party's leadership, and a new congress to elect a new leader was called. Two candidates were on the ballot,

Francisco Lucas Pires Francisco António Lucas Pires (19 October 1944 – 22 May 1998) was a Portuguese teacher, lawyer, and politician. Biography Pires was married to Maria Teresa Bahia de Almeida Garrett, and was the father of four children. He graduated from law ...

and Luís Barbosa, with Lucas Pires being elected as new party leader. , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=center , WIN , align=right , , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Luís Barbosa , align=center , , align=right , , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

PSD 1983 nomination selection

Just like CDS, after the collapse of the AD coalition, the then PSD leader

announces he would not run for the leadership of the party. Shortly after,

Carlos Mota Pinto Carlos Alberto da Mota Pinto, GCC, GCIP, (; Pombal, 25 July 1936 – Coimbra, 7 May 1985) was a Portuguese professor and politician. Career He graduated as a licentiate in law and doctorate in judicial sciences from the Faculty of Law o ...

is selected by the PSD as the party's candidate for Prime Minister. , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

, align=center , , align=right , 100.0 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , , align=center , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source:

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 250 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 126 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

to be approved. The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the

district magnitude An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

. The use of 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- ...

makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the

Hare quota The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. Th ...

or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.Gallaher, Michael (1992).
Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities
For these elections, and compared with the 1980 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 2nd legislature (1980–1983) and that also contested the elections:

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polling

National summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=11, AR Eleicoes 1983

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left, Parties ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=Votes ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align="center", Seats ! rowspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , MPs %/
votes % , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 1983 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , , 2,061,309, , 36.11, , 8.4, , 66, , 101, , 35, , 40.40, , 10.8, , 1.12 , - , , 1,554,804, , 27.24, , , , 82, , 75, , 7, , 30.00, , 2.8, , 1.10 , - , , 1,031,609, , 18.07, , 1.3, , 41, , 44, , 3, , 17.60, , 1.2, , 0.97 , - , , 716,705, , 12.56, , , , 46, , 30, , 16, , 12.00, , 6.4, , 0.96 , - , , 39,180, , 0.69, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 27,635, , 0.48, , , , 6, , 0, , 6, , 0.00, , 2.4, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#E2062C align="center" , , align=left, People's Democratic Union , 27,260, , 0.48, , 0.9, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0.00, , 0.4, , 0.0 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#E2062C align="center" , , align=left, People's Democratic Union / PSR , 25,222, , 0.44, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 20,995, , 0.37, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 19,657, , 0.34, , 1.1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 13,327, , 0.23, , 0.8, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 11,500, , 0.20, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , , 6,113, , 0.11, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 5,523, , 0.10, , 0.0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , , 86, , 0.00, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,561,011 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 97.43 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.3 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="43" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", — , - , colspan=2, Blank ballots , 42,494, , 0.74, , 0.1, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=2, Invalid ballots , 104,276, , 1.83, , 0.1 , - , colspan=2 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,707,695 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="42" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=2, Registered voters/turnout , , 7,337,064, , 77.79, , 6.1 , - , colspan=11 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de EleiçõesMapa oficial. D.R. n.º 121, Suplemento, Série I de 1983-05-26

Distribution by constituency

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

PSD PSD may refer to: Educational bodies * Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, a Pre-K to 12th grade school for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Philippine School Doha, a Filipino scho ...

!colspan=2 ,

APU APU or Apu may refer to: Film and television * ''The Apu Trilogy'', a series of three Bengali films, directed by Satyajit Ray, with the fictional character Apu Roy, comprising: ** ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road'') (1955), the first ...

!colspan=2 ,

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 ...

, - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, 31.1 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 54.4 , 3 , 3.1 , - , 4.7 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:; color:white;", 36.6 , 6 , 34.8 , 6 , 7.0 , 1 , 16.4 , 2 , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 28.0 , 2 , 11.8 , - , style="background:red; color:white;", 49.4 , 3 , 4.1 , - , 5 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 39.7 , 7 , 27.0 , 5 , 8.8 , 1 , 18.3 , 3 , 16 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , 30.4 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 35.8 , 2 , 4.8 , - , 20.9 , 1 , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:; color:white;", 37.1 , 3 , 30.6 , 2 , 11.3 , - , 13.2 , 1 , 6 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 45.3 , 6 , 27.8 , 3 , 10.7 , 1 , 10.2 , 1 , 11 , - , 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 to ...

, 23.9 , 1 , 18.6 , 1 , style="background:red; color:white;", 47.6 , 3 , 4.5 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:; color:white;", 43.2 , 5 , 23.1 , 2 , 18.6 , 2 , 7.4 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:; color:white;", 33.5 , 2 , 31.5 , 2 , 4.9 , - , 23.8 , 1 , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

, 32.7 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 35.6 , 4 , 9.5 , 1 , 16.2 , 2 , 11 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 35.8 , 21 , 21.8 , 13 , 25.3 , 15 , 11.7 , 7 , 56 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, 24.4 , 1 , style="background:; color:white;", 56.2 , 4 , 2.8 , - , 8.2 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:; color:white;", 38.5 , 2 , 19.1 , 1 , 28.7 , 1 , 7.5 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 ...

, style="background:; color:white;", 43.0 , 18 , 26.2 , 10 , 13.6 , 5 , 12.5 , 5 , 38 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:; color:white;", 38.4 , 5 , 24.7 , 3 , 20.0 , 3 , 10.0 , 1 , 12 , - , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 ...

, 30.6 , 6 , 12.7 , 2 , style="background:red; color:white;", 45.8 , 8 , 5.1 , 1 , 17 , - , 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, ...

, 32.5 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 32.6 , 3 , 9.9 , - , 18.4 , 1 , 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 covers ...

, 32.3 , 2 , style="background:; color:white;", 42.0 , 3 , 5.4 , - , 12.7 , 1 , 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 inhabita ...

, 30.9 , 4 , style="background:; color:white;", 36.6 , 4 , 4.6 , - , 20.7 , 2 , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:; color:white;", 33.6 , 1 , 31.2 , 1 , 17.1 , - , 11.1 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Outside Europe , 7.0 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 48.2 , 1 , 2.8 , - , 34.1 , 1 , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:; color:white;", 36.1 , 101 , 27.2 , 75 , 18.1 , 44 , 12.6 , 30 , 250 , - , colspan=10 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Legislativas portuguesas de 1983 (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