The 1979 Portuguese legislative election took place on 2 December. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic, 13 seats less than those elected in 1976. The last election, three and a half years before, in April 1976, was won by the Socialist Party under the lead of

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 ...

, who became the Prime-Minister of the 1st Constitutional government after the revolution. However, the government suffered several attacks and in December 1977, Soares lost the voting of a confidence resolution because all the opposition, the Democratic and Social Center, the Social Democrats and the Communists united in order to vote against it, and so, the Soares' government fell. Soares would become Prime-Minister again in January 1978, in coalition with the Democratic Social Center, but in July this party would force the end of the government due to disagreements about agrarian reform. In August, Nobre da Costa became Prime-Minister by personal decision of the President of

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–?u ...

, after a failed attempt to unite the parties on the Parliament. However, the program of Nobre da Costa's government was never approved and two months later, da Costa was replaced by

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 ...

who would govern with extreme difficulties for less than one year. In July 1979, the President finally decided to dissolve the Parliament and call for a new election for December. Mota Pinto was replaced in the period between the dissolution and the election by

Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Maria de Lourdes Ruivo da Silva de Matos Pintasilgo (; 18 January 1930 – 10 July 2004) was a Portuguese chemical engineer and politician. She was the first and to date only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Portugal, and the second woman to ...

(the only women to lead a government in Portugal). The right-wing parties, the Social Democratic, the Democratic and Social Center and the People's Monarchist Party united in the Democratic Alliance (Portuguese: Aliança Democrática or AD) under the lead of Sá Carneiro won the election, receiving 43% of the vote. The Socialists lost more than 30 MPs and the Communists, now allied with the Portuguese Democratic Movement in the United People Alliance achieved their highest total ever, with almost 20% of the voting.

Background

Leadership changes

PSD 1978 leadership election

The PSD suffered a lot of internal division after the 1976 election. The party was essential divided between those who want the party to pursue a more social democratic path, and those who want a more centrist to center-right approach, these aligned with

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 ...

. Because of these disputes, Sá Carneiro leaves the leadership in November 1977, and is succeeded by António Sousa Franco, who leads the party more to the left. But, internal divisions continue, and in June 1978, a group of 42 PSD MPs release the "Unpostponable Options" manifesto where they attack Sá Carneiro and reaffirm the Social Democratic path with the candidacy to the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...

. Sá Carneiro returns to the leadership in the 1978 July party congress and 37 PSD MPs leave definitely the party and form the

Independent Social Democratic Action Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

(ASDI), which will merge with the PS a few years later. , - 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: A few months after the congress that reinstated Sá Carneiro in the party's leadership, the PSD, CDS and PPM reach an agreement to form the Democratic Alliance, in order to contest the following elections.

Electoral system

The Assembly of the Republic has 250 members elected to four-year terms. The total number of MPs was reduced to 250 from the previous 263, elected in 1976. 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 poli ...

. 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 1976 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 first half of the 1st legislature (1976–1980), as this election was a national by-election, and that also contested the elections:

Campaign period

Party slogans

National summary of votes and seats

, - , colspan=12, AR Eleicoes 1979

, - ! rowspan="2" colspan=3 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,

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align=center, 1979 ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=± , - , style="background-color:lightblue;border-bottom-style:hidden;" rowspan="3", , bgcolor="2A52BE" align="center" , , align=left, Democratic Alliance , 2,554,458, , 42.52, , , , , , 121, , , , 48.40, , , , 1.14 , - , bgcolor="" , , align=left,

Social Democratic 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 soci ...

, 141,227, , 2.35, , , , 73, , 7, , , , 2.80, , , , 1.19 , - , bgcolor="" , , align=left, Democratic and Social Centre , 23,523, , 0.39, , , , 42, , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , - style="background-color:lightblue;" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="3", Total Democratic Alliance , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 2,719,208 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 45.26 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 4.4 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 115 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 128 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 13 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 51.20 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 7.5 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:lightblue", 1.13 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor="" , , align=left,

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, 1,642,136, , 27.33, , 7.6, , 107, , 74, , 33, , 29.60, , 11.1, , 1.08 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=red align="center" , , align=left, United People Alliance , 1,129,322, , 18.80, , 4.4, , 40, , 47, , 7, , 18.80, , 3.6, , 1.00 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#E2062C align="center" , , align=left, People's Democratic Union , 130,842, , 2.18, , 0.5, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 0.40, , 0.0, , 0.18 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=yellow align="center" , , align=left, Christian Democratic , 72,514, , 1.21, , 0.7, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor="" , , align=left, Workers' Communist Party , 53,268, , 0.89, , 0.2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=pink align="center" , , align=left, UEDS , 43,325, , 0.72, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=red align="center" , , align=left,

Revolutionary Socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

, 36,978, , 0.62, , 0.5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0.00, , 0.0, , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor="" , , align=left,

Workers Party of Socialist Unity Workers Party of Socialist Unity (Portuguese: Partido Operário de Unidade Socialista, , POUS) is a small Trotskyist former political party in Portugal, founded by Aires Rodrigues and Carmelinda Pereira in 1979 after a split from the Portuguese S ...

, 12,713, , 0.21, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan="2" style="width: 10px" bgcolor=darkred align="center" , , align=left, OCMLP , 3,433, , 0.06, , , , , , 0, , , , 0.00, , , , 0.0 , - , colspan=3 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 5,843,739 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 97.28 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 2.0 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 263 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 250 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 13 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 0.0 , width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", — , - , colspan=3, Blank ballots , 42,863, , 0.71, , —, , colspan=6 rowspan=4, , - , colspan=3, Invalid ballots , 120,851, , 2.01, , 2.7 , - , colspan=3 align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 6,007,453 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=3, Registered voters/turnout , , 7,249,346, , 82.86, , 0.6 , - , colspan=12 align=left , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

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

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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 , UDP , - , 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 ...

, colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 30.0 , 2 , 3.1 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 52.0 , 3 , 1.7 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Aveiro , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 56.7 , 9 , 28.4 , 5 , 7.9 , 1 , colspan="2" rowspan="11" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.2 , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Beja , 19.0 , 1 , 22.0 , 1 , style="background:red; color:white;", 50.7 , 3 , 1.8 , - , 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:#2A52BE; color:white;", 51.9 , 9 , 30.2 , 5 , 10.0 , 1 , 1.4 , - , 15 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Bragança , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 60.7 , 3 , 22.2 , 1 , 5.8 , - , 1.9 , - , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Castelo Branco , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 49.9 , 4 , 27.8 , 2 , 12.4 , - , 1.9 , - , 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:#2A52BE; color:white;", 44.8 , 6 , 35.1 , 5 , 11.2 , 1 , 1.3 , - , 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 to ...

, 26.9 , 1 , 16.9 , 1 , style="background:red; color:white;", 48.9 , 3 , 1.7 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Faro , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 34.6 , 4 , 34.0 , 3 , 20.3 , 2 , 3.2 , - , 9 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Guarda , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 60.6 , 4 , 26.3 , 1 , 5.4 , - , 0.9 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Leiria , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 56.2 , 7 , 23.2 , 3 , 10.9 , 1 , 1.5 , - , 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:#2A52BE; color:white;", 40.0 , 24 , 25.8 , 15 , 26.0 , 16 , 2.8 , 1 , 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 ...

, colspan="2" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 17.2 , 1 , 3.1 , - , style="background:; color:white;", 57.8 , 4 , 6.6 , - , 5 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Portalegre , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 32.1 , 2 , 29.8 , 1 , 29.4 , 1 , colspan="2" rowspan="9" bgcolor="#AAAAAA", , 1.7 , - , 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:#2A52BE; color:white;", 44.5 , 18 , 34.8 , 14 , 14.5 , 6 , 1.9 , - , 38 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Santarém , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 41.3 , 6 , 27.3 , 3 , 21.7 , 3 , 2.2 , - , 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 ...

, 22.3 , 4 , 21.4 , 4 , style="background:red; color:white;", 47.0 , 9 , 4.0 , - , 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, ...

, style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 54.8 , 4 , 24.9 , 2 , 9.8 , - , 0.9 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 57.7 , 4 , 21.4 , 2 , 6.1 , - , 1.5 , - , 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 ...

, style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 64.1 , 8 , 21.4 , 2 , 5.5 , - , 1.4 , - , 10 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Europe , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 38.3 , 1 , 33.2 , 1 , 13.4 , - , 5.7 , - , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;" , Rest of the World , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 77.3 , 2 , 5.7 , - , 3.1 , - , 0.7 , - , 2 , - , - class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:left;" , Total , style="background:#2A52BE; color:white;", 42.5 , 121 , 27.3 , 74 , 18.8 , 47 , 2.4 , 7 , 2.2 , 1 , 250 , - , colspan=12 style="text-align:left;" , Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Maps

Legislativas portuguesas de 1979 (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