Misplaced Pages

1975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly election

← 1973 25 April 1975 1976 →
250 seats to the Portuguese Constituent Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
Registered	6,231,372
Turnout	5,711,829 (91.7%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Mário Soares Francisco Sá Carneiro Álvaro Cunhal Party PS PPD PCP Leader since 19 April 1973 6 May 1974 31 March 1961 Leader's seat Lisbon Porto Lisbon Seats won 116 81 30 Popular vote 2,162,972 1,507,282 711,935 Percentage 37.9% 26.4% 12.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Diogo Freitas do Amaral Francisco Pereira de Moura João Pulido Valente Party CDS MDP/CDE UDP Leader since 19 July 1974 September 1969 9 March 1975 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon Seats won 16 5 1 Popular vote 434,879 236,318 44,877 Percentage 7.6% 4.1% 0.8%
Vote winner strength by district Results by constituency

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, and only the seventh free election in all of Portuguese history. It was also the first under universal suffrage since 1894. 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, 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 Vasco Gonçalves was confident in a victory of the most leftwing forces in Portugal, forecasting that the Portuguese Democratic Movement (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 percent 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 percent 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 percent, 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, 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 at 4 percent and elected 5 members to the Assembly.

The results map showed a strong North-South division, with the more rightwing forces, PPD and CDS, dominating the North and Center 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, Coimbra and Setúbal.

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 who died in 1970. The People's National Action (ANP), the single party of the then President of the Council of Ministers, Marcelo Caetano, 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 António de Oliveira Salazar. After the revolutionary forces proclaimed victory, the National Salvation Junta, presided by General António de Spínola, took over the position of Head of State and Government.

With political parties once again legal, the Socialist Party (PS) leader, Mário Soares, and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) Secretary General, Álvaro Cunhal, returned 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, founded the Democratic People's Party (PPD) which claimed to be social democratic.

At the end of three weeks, Spínola took the oath as President of the Republic, and nominated Adelino da Palma Carlos Prime Minister as the head of the 1st provisional government in which civil and military members plus independent, socialists, social democrats and communists also took part.

As early as July 18, Vasco Gonçalves, a military man seen as very close to the Communist Party, replaced Palma Carlos as head of the government. After this, the first party that didn't claim to be from the left or the center-left appeared, the Democratic and Social Center (CDS), which claimed to be an advocate of Christian democracy and liberalism.

Barely two and a half months later, after failing to carry out a counter-revolution, Spínola resigned as President of the Republic and was replaced by General Francisco da Costa Gomes, his deputy in the National Salvation Junta. On March 19, 1975, President Costa Gomes officially called 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, establishes the election of members of parliament by proportional representation according to the D'Hondt method, 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:

District	Number of MPs	Map
Lisbon	55	15 6 36 6 4 14 10 6 12 7 11 13 55 4 5 16 6 9 6 3 2 1 1 1 1
Porto	36
Setúbal	16
Braga	15
Aveiro	14
Santarém	13
Coimbra	12
Leiria	11
Viseu	10
Faro	9
Castelo Branco	7
Beja, Funchal, Guarda, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real	6
Évora	5
Bragança and Portalegre	4
Ponta Delgada	3
Angra do Heroísmo	2
Emigration, Horta, Macau and Mozambique	1

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, a debate took place, moderated by Joaquim Letria, on the electoral results revealed so far, with the participation of the leaders of the four main parties at the time: Mário Soares (Socialist Party), Joaquim Magalhães Mota replacing Francisco Sá Carneiro (Social Democratic Party), Álvaro Cunhal (Portuguese Communist Party), and Francisco Pereira de Moura (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

Date Released	Polling Firm	PS					Others	Lead
25 Apr 1975	Election results	37.9	26.4	12.5	7.6	4.1	11.5	11.5
Mar 1975	IPOPE	47.0	21.0	17.0	2.0	4.0	9.0	26.0
Dec 1974	CUF	35.1	27.0	10.8		2.7	24.4	8.1

Results

Summary of the 25 April 1975 Constituent Assembly elections
results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Socialist Party	2,162,972	37.87	116
	Democratic People's Party	1,507,282	26.39	81
	Portuguese Communist Party	711,935	12.46	30
	Democratic and Social Centre	434,879	7.61	16
	Portuguese Democratic Movement	236,318	4.14	5
	People's Socialist Front	66,307	1.16	0
	Movement of Socialist Left	58,248	1.02	0
	People's Democratic Union	44,877	0.79	1
	Communist Electoral Front (Marxist–Leninist)	33,185	0.58	0
	People's Monarchist Party	32,526	0.57	0
	Popular Unity Party	13,138	0.23	0
	Internationalist Communist League	10,835	0.19	0
	Association for the Defense of Macau Interests	1,622	0.03	1
	Democratic Centre of Macau	1,030	0.02	0
Total		5,315,064	93.05	250
Valid votes		5,315,064	93.05
Invalid/blank votes		396,675	6.95
Total votes cast		5,711,829	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,231,372	91.66
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

Distribution by constituency

Maps

• Most voted political force by municipality.

Notes

1. Independent Joaquim Magalhães Mota replaced Francisco Sá Carneiro.
2. ^ Independent Democratic Association of Macau and Democratic Centre of Macau electoral list only in Macau.

References

1. ^ "Todos queriam votar nas eleições de 1975". Correio da Manhã. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
2. "A primeira campanha eleitoral em democracia". RTP. 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
3. 25 de Abril de 1974, RTP, retrieved 25 February 2018.
4. As primeiras eleições livres, Correio da Manhã, retrieved 25 February 2018.
5. Official call of 1975 Constituent Assembly election
6. Electoral Law of 1974
7. "Mapa com o número de deputados da Eleição para a Assembleia Constituinte de 25 de Abril de 1975". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Mapa com o número de deputados da Eleição para a Assembleia Constituinte de 25 de Abril de 1975. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
8. "PS – 1975". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
9. "ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1983 – PSD". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
10. "Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)" (PDF). Francisco Teixeira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
11. "Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)" (PDF). Francisco Teixeira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
12. "MDP – CDE – 1975". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
13. "UDP – 1975". EPHEMERA (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
14. "Análise das eleições para a Assembleia Constituinte". RTP Arquivos (in Portuguese). 26 April 1975. Retrieved 5 February 2022.

External links

• Comissão Nacional de Eleições Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal

v t e Elections and referendums in Portugal
Presidential elections	1918 (Apr) 1923 1928 1935 1942 1949 1951 1958 1976 1980 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021 2026
Parliamentary elections	1822 1826 1828 1834 1836 (Jul) 1836 (Nov) 1838 1840 1842 1845 1847 1851 1852 1856 1858 1860 1861 1864 1865 1867 1868 1869 1870 (Mar) 1870 (Sep) 1871 1874 1878 1879 1881 1884 1887 1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1897 1899 1900 1901 1904 1905 1906 (Apr) 1906 (Aug) 1908 1910 1913 1915 1918 1919 1921 1922 1925 1934 1938 1942 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1976 1979 1980 1983 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 2002 2005 2009 2011 2015 2019 2022 2024 Next
Constituent Assembly elections	1820 1911 1975
Local elections	1976 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 2025
European elections	1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024 2029
Referendums	1933 1998 (Jun) 1998 (Nov) 2007
See also: Elections in the Azores Madeira Lisbon Porto Presidential elections

• Legislative elections in Portugal
• 1975 elections in Portugal
• April 1975 events in Europe