The 2021 presidential election was held in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 24 January. The incumbent

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 ...

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic. He is the List of presidents of Portugal, 20th and current president of Portugal, since 9 March 2016. He is a member of the Social Democrati ...

, was reelected for a second term. The election was held during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and Portugal was under a lockdown as of election day. President

was reelected by a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

, winning 60.7% of the votes. He won every district in the country and all 308 municipalities, a result which happened for the first time ever in Portuguese democracy; he won 3,083 parishes out of 3,092. The election also marked the rise of

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

candidate

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a right-wing Portuguese politician and former sports pundit. He briefly worked as a senior civil servant at the Portuguese tax office. He founded the Chega party in April 2019, and was ...

, leader of CHEGA, who polled 3rd with almost 12% of the votes. In second place, former MEP and Ambassador

Ana Gomes Ana Maria Rosa Martins Gomes (born 9 February 1954), better known as Ana Gomes, is a Portuguese former diplomat and politician of the Socialist Party (PS). She earned wide recognition for her role in negotiating independence for East Timor, a ...

was able to win 13% of the votes, the best result ever for a female candidate in a presidential election. The rest of candidates did not receive above 5% each. Overall turnout in this election fell to 39.3%, a drop of 9

percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the Difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points, but a ...

s, mainly due to the automatic registration of overseas voters; this practice increased the number of registered voters to almost 11 million. In Portugal alone, turnout stood at 45.45%, a decrease of 4.6 percentage points when compared to the 2016 election. This was the lowest drop in turnout in an election with an incumbent running since

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 – ...

Background

was elected in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

with 52% of the votes on the first round. He took the oath of office on 9 March 2016 and has been in

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...

with

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 ...

Prime Minister

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

since then. In Portugal, the president is the

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

and has mostly ceremonial powers. However, the president does have some political influence, and can dissolve the

Parliament of Portugal The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament ...

if a crisis occurs. The president's

official residence An official residence is the House, residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, Clergy, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-relate ...

is the

Belém Palace The Belém Palace ( pt, Palácio de Belém), formally the National Palace of Belém, ( pt, Palácio Nacional de Belém), is the current official residence of the President of the Portuguese Republic, the head of state of Portugal. Located in the ...

in Lisbon.

Electoral system

Under

Portuguese law The Law of Portugal is the legal system that applies to Portugal. It is part of the family of the civil law legal systems, based on Roman law. As such, it has many common features with the legal systems found in most of the countries in Contine ...

, a candidate must receive a majority of votes (50% plus one vote) to be elected. If no candidate achieved a majority in the first round, a

runoff election The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

(i.e., second round, held between the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round) should be held. In order to stand for election, each candidate must gather 7,500 signatures of support one month before the election and submit them to the

Constitutional Court of Portugal 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 Constitut ...

. The Constitutional Court then certifies the candidacies which meet the requirements to appear on the ballot. The highest number of candidacies ever accepted was ten in 2016.

Early voting

Voters were also able to vote early, which would happen one week before election day on 17 January 2021. Voters had to register between 10 and 14 January in order to be eligible to cast an early ballot; a total of 246,880 voters requested to vote early in 2021. On January 17, 197,903 voters (80.16% of voters that registered) cast an early

ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16t ...

Candidates

There were seven candidates certified to run in this election. In addition, the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

rejected Eduardo Baptista's nomination due to insufficient signatures, although his name still appeared on the ballot. Six more individuals had announced their intention to run for President, but did not present any application to the Court, two of whom publicly stated that they would withdraw. Finally, three more individuals were, for a while, thought of as potential candidates, but later refused to participate.

Formalized candidacy

, diplomat and former

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 ...

MEP (2004–2019); *

, CHEGA (CH) leader; * João Ferreira,

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 ...

(PCP) candidate, MEP since 2009; *

, President of the Republic since 2016; * Marisa Matias, Left Bloc (BE) MEP (since 2009); presidential candidate in 2016, polled third place with 10% of the votes; *Tiago Mayan Gonçalves,

Liberal Initiative The Liberal Initiative ( pt, Iniciativa Liberal, , IL) is a liberal political party in Portugal currently led by João Cotrim de Figueiredo. In 2019, its debut year at the Portuguese legislative elections, the party won one seat in the Portugu ...

(IL) candidate; * Vitorino Silva (''Tino de Rans''),

React, Include, Recycle React–Include–Recycle ( pt, Reagir–Incluir–Reciclar, R.I.R.) is a Portuguese political party led by Vitorino Silva, better known as Tino de Rans. The RIR presents itself as a humanist, pacifist, environmentalist, pro-European Pro-E ...

(RIR) leader; presidential candidate in 2016, polled 6th place with 3.3% of the votes;

Rejected candidates

*Eduardo Baptista, NATO Staff Officer, Independent;

Unsuccessful candidates

* Carla Bastos,

member, Finances inspector; *Orlando Cruz, former People's Party member; *Paulo Alves, Together for the People party member, former member of the

Felgueiras Felgueiras () is a municipality in Porto District, Portugal. The current mayor is Nuno Fonseca. There are two cities located in the municipality: Felgueiras (city status received on 13 July 1990) and Lixa. The population in 2011 was 58,065, in a ...

municipal assembly (2005-2009) *Paulo Patinha Antão,

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

Withdrew

*Bruno Fialho, Democratic Republican Party (PDR) leader; *Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira, People's Monarchist Party (PPM) president,

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

singer,

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and rural producer

Refused

* Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, former Secretary of State for Tourism (2013–2015) and People's Party MP (2011–2013). * António Sampaio da Nóvoa, former Rector of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

(2006–2013); presidential candidate in 2016, polled second place with almost 23% of the vote; *

Miguel Albuquerque Miguel Filipe Machado de Albuquerque (born 4 May 1961) is a Portugal, Portuguese politician of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal), Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the current Presidents of the Regional Government of Madeira, President of the ...

President of the Regional Government of Madeira Presidents of the Regional Government of Madeira are the Head of government, heads of government for the autonomous local authority of Madeira, since the Carnation Revolution that installed the Democracy, democratic Third Portuguese Republic. The ...

since 2015; former Mayor of

Funchal Funchal () is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Madeira, 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 ...

(1994–2013).

Campaign

Candidates' slogans

Candidates' debates

Opinion polling

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" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" , , align=left,

, align=left,

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 ...

, People's Party , align="right" , 2,531,692 , align="right" , 60.66 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#FF66FF align="center" , , align=left,

, align=left,

People–Animals–Nature People–Animals–Nature ( pt, Pessoas-Animais-Natureza, PAN) is an environmentalist, animal rights and animal welfare focused political party in Portugal, founded in 2009. In 2015, they won one seat in the Assembly of the Republic.

LIVRE LIVRE (, L), previously known as LIVRE/Tempo de Avançar (, L/TDA), is a green political party in Portugal founded in 2014. Its founding principles are ecology, universalism, freedom, equity, solidarity, socialism and Europeanism. Its symbol i ...

, align="right" , 540,823 , align="right" , 12.96 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#202056 align="center" , , align=left,

, align=left, CHEGA , align="right" , 497,746 , align="right" , 11.93 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor=red align="center" , , align=left, João Ferreira , align=left,

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 ...

, align="right" , 179,764 , align="right" , 4.31 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor= align="center" , , align=left, Marisa Matias , align=left, Left Bloc, Socialist Alternative Movement , align="right" , 165,127 , align="right" , 3.96 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#00ADEF align="center" , , align=left, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves , align=left,

, align="right" , 134,991 , align="right" , 3.23 , - , style="width: 5px" bgcolor=LightSeaGreen align="center" , , align=left, Vitorino Silva , align=left,

, align="right" , 123,031 , align="right" , 2.95 , - , colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total valid , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 4,173,174 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 100.00 , - , align=right colspan="3", Blank ballots , width="65" align="right" , 47,164 , width="40" align="right" , 1.11 , - , align=right colspan="3" , Invalid ballots , width="65" align="right", 38,018 , width="40" align="right", 0.89 , - , colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", 4,258,356 , width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - , colspan=3, Registered voters/turnout , , 10,847,434, , 39.26 , - , colspan=5 align=left, Source
Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Accomplishments

won the third highest vote margin ever in presidential elections in Portugal since democracy was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

, only behind

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 ...

' 70.35% in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and António Ramalho Eanes' 61.59% in

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 ...

. He was also the first candidate ever to win the vote in all

municipalities 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 ...

became the most voted woman ever in presidential elections in Portugal, beating Marisa Matias' previous record of 10.12% in

, and the first to get second place.

Maps

File:Mapa dos resultados da eleição presidencial de Portugal em 2021.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 ...

: Marcelo - orange. File:Presidenciais 2021.png, First, second and third most voted candidates by

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

: Marcelo - orange; Gomes - pink; Ventura - dark blue; Ferreira - red. File:Mapa Presidenciais 2021.png, First, second and third most voted candidates by

: Marcelo - orange; Gomes - pink; Ventura - dark blue; Ferreira - red; Vitorino Silva - Light Sea Green.

Notes

References

External links

Official results site, Portuguese Justice MinistryPortuguese Electoral CommissionERC – Official publication of polls
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portuguese presidential election, 2021 Presidential January 2021 events in Portugal

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...