The 1996 Portuguese presidential election was held on 14 January. Incumbent president

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 constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term. The

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

were coming from a clear defeat in

1995 Portuguese legislative election The 1995 Portuguese legislative election took place on 1 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The incumbent Prime Minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, decided not to run for a fourth consecutive term and the ...

, and their former leader,

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 ...

, who had left the office of Prime Minister after 10 years at the helm, lost by 400,000 votes to the Mayor of

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 ...

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th president of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. A member of the Socialist Party, a party which he led between 1989 a ...

. The other left candidates,

Jerónimo de Sousa Jerónimo Carvalho de Sousa (; born 13 April 1947) is a Portugal, Portuguese politician who served as General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party from the 17th Congress of the Party in November 2004 to the party's National Conference in N ...

and Alberto Matos, presented by the

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,Portugue ...

and the People's Democratic Union respectively, both left the race one week before the elections, announcing their support for

, as the victory of a left-wing candidate was in doubt. These parties had already supported Sampaio in a coalition that won the local elections in Lisbon. It would be the last time that People's Democratic Union presented a candidate, as two years later it merged with other small left-wing parties and formed the Left Bloc. Cavaco Silva was supported by the two major right-wing parties, 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 ...

and the People's Party, and once more, the right-wing parties did not manage to win the presidential election. The election was, therefore, a rematch between Jorge Sampaio and Cavaco Silva as in the 1991 general election, Cavaco Silva defeated Jorge Sampaio by a 51% to 29% margin. Sampaio gathered the majority of the votes in all the districts in the South of Portugal, including the Communist strongholds in

Alentejo Alentejo ( , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond () the Tagus river" (''Tejo''). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alent ...

and

Setúbal district The District of Setúbal ( pt, Distrito de Setúbal ) is a district located in the south-west of Portugal. It is named for its capital, the city of Setúbal. Geography It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Év ...

. Cavaco won in the more conservative districts of the North (excluding

Porto district The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...

, where Sampaio edged out Cavaco by a narrow 52% to 48% margin) and also in

Leiria district The District of Leiria ( pt, Distrito de Leiria ) is a district located in Centro region of Portugal, divided between the traditional provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura. It borders on the north with district of Coimbra, on the east with ...

, traditional strongholds of the right-wing parties. With only two candidates left on the race, no second round was needed, and Sampaio was inaugurated to his first term in office on 9 March 1996. Aníbal Cavaco Silva would have to wait ten more years to be elected president in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Procedure

Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7500 and 15000 signatures and submit them to the

Portuguese Constitutional Court The Constitutional Court ( pt, Tribunal Constitucional, ) is a special court, defined by the Portuguese Constitution as part of the judicial branch of the Portuguese political organization. Unlike the rest of the country's courts, the Constituti ...

. According to the

Portuguese Constitution The present Constitution of Portugal was adopted in 1976 after the Carnation Revolution. It was preceded by a number of constitutions including the first one created in 1822 (following the Liberal Revolution of 1820), 1826 (drawn up by King ...

, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates

, Mayor of

between 1989 and 1995, leader of 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 ...

between 1989 and 1992, supported by the

; *

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 ...

between 1985 and 1995, leader of the

between 1985 and 1995, supported by the

and the People's Party; *

, Official candidate of the

and

Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( pt, Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes", , PEV) is a Portuguese eco-socialist political party. It is a member of the European Greens and a founding member of the European Federation of Green Parties. It was the fir ...

, Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio; *Alberto Matos, Official candidate of the People's Democratic Union, Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio;

Campaign period

Party slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polls

Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.

Results

Summary of the 14 January 1996

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

presidential election results , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2", Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Supporting parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan="2", First round , - !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;", Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;", % , - , style="width:10px;background-color:#FF66FF;text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;",

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

, style="text-align:right;", 3,035,056 , style="text-align:right;", 53.91 , - , style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#FF9900;text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;",

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

, People's Party , style="text-align:right;", 2,595,131 , style="text-align:right;", 46.09 , - , style="width: 5px" style="background-color:red;text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;", Jerónimo de Sousa Jerónimo Carvalho de Sousa (; born 13 April 1947) is a Portugal, Portuguese politician who served as General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party from the 17th Congress of the Party in November 2004 to the party's National Conference in N ...
, style="text-align:left;", 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,Portugue ...
,
Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( pt, Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes", , PEV) is a Portuguese eco-socialist political party. It is a member of the European Greens and a founding member of the European Federation of Green Parties. It was the fir ...
, colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , ''left the race'' , - , style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#E2062C;text-align:center;", , style="text-align:left;", ~~Alberto Matos~~ , style="text-align:left;", ~~People's Democratic Union~~ , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , ''left the race'' , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,630,187 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , - , style="text-align:right;" colspan="3", Blank ballots , width="65" style="text-align:right;", 69,328 , width="40" style="text-align:right;", 1.20 , - , style="text-align:right;" colspan="3" , Invalid ballots , width="65" style="text-align:right;", 63,463 , width="40" style="text-align:right;", 1.10 , - , colspan="3" style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,762,978 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=3, Registered voters/turnout , , 8,693,636, , 66.29 , - , colspan=5 style="text-align:left;", Both candidates left the race in favour of Jorge Sampaio. , - , colspan=5 style="text-align:left;", Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

File:Eleições presidenciais 1996.png, Strongest candidate by electoral district. File:Eleições presidenciais portuguesas de 1996.png, Strongest candidate 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

Portuguese Electoral Commission

NSD: European Election Database - Portugal
publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2010