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1980 Portuguese legislative election

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Field	Value
country	Portugal
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1979 Portuguese legislative election
previous_year	1979
next_election	1983 Portuguese legislative election
next_year	1983
previous_mps	1st Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic
elected_mps	2nd Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic
seats_for_election	All 250 seats in the Assembly of the Republic
majority_seats	126
registered	7,179,023 1.0%
turnout	6,026,395 (83.9%)
1.0 pp
election_date	5 October 1980
image1
leader1	Francisco Sá Carneiro
party1	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
alliance1	AD
colour1
leader_since1	2 July 1978
leaders_seat1	Lisbon
last_election1	128 seats, 45.3%
seats1	134
seat_change1	6
popular_vote1	2,868,076
percentage1	47.6%
swing1	2.3 pp
<!-- PS -->	image2
leader2	Mário Soares
party2	Socialist Party (Portugal)
alliance2	Republican and Socialist Front
colour2
leader_since2	19 April 1973
leaders_seat2	Lisbon
last_election2	74 seats, 27.3%
seats2	74
seat_change2	0
popular_vote2	1,673,279
percentage2	27.8%
swing2	0.5 pp
<!-- APU -->	image3
leader3	Álvaro Cunhal
party3	Portuguese Communist Party
alliance3	United People Alliance
leader_since3	14 April 1978
leaders_seat3	Lisbon
last_election3	47 seats, 18.8%
seats3	41
seat_change3	6
popular_vote3	1,009,505
percentage3	16.8%
swing3	2.0 pp
<!-- Map -->	title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Francisco Sá Carneiro
before_party	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
after_election	Francisco Sá Carneiro
after_party	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
map	{{Switcher

1.0 pp

| [[File:1980 Portuguese legislative election - Results.svg|230px]] | Vote winner strength by district PSD ran alone in the Azores and Madeira. PS ran alone in the Azores, Madeira, Europe and Rest of the World. | [[File:1980 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg|272px]] | Results by constituency

The 1980 Portuguese legislative election took place on 5 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

In January 1980, the Democratic Alliance, which had won the previous election, on 2 December 1979, entered office with Francisco Sá Carneiro leading the government. However, this election was an extraordinary election and because of Fixed-term Parliament rules, in 1980, another election was held.

The Democratic Alliance (AD) won, again, and increased the majority they had achieved 10 months before, in December 1979. The AD won almost 48 percent of the votes and gathered 134 seats, six more. The Socialist Party (PS), now leading a broad coalition called Republican and Socialist Front, got basically the same vote share and seats as in 1979. The Communist led alliance, United People Alliance (APU) lost some ground, gathering almost 17 percent of the votes, 2 percentage points lower than 10 months earlier.

Turnout was one of the highest ever, almost 84 percent, and in terms of ballots cast, the more than 6 million votes cast was a record in Portuguese elections for 44 years after being surpassed in the 2024 legislative election.

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 to be approved.

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.

For these elections, and compared with the 1979 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following:

District	Number of MPs	Map
Lisbon	56
Porto	38
Setúbal	17
Aveiro and Braga	15
Santarém and Coimbra	12
Leiria	11
Viseu	10
Faro	9
Castelo Branco, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real	6
Azores, Beja, Évora, Guarda and Madeira	5
Bragança and Portalegre	4
Europe and Outside Europe	2

Parties

The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the second half of the 1st legislature (1976–1980), as the 1979 election was a national by-election, and that also contested the elections:

Name	Ideology	Political position	Leader	1979 result
dissolution	%	Seats
Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}};"		PPD/PSD	Social Democratic Party
Partido Social Democrata	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Francisco Sá Carneiro
45.3%

CDS – People's Party}};"		CDS	Democratic and Social Center
Centro Democrático e Social	Christian democracy	Centre-right
to right-wing	Diogo Freitas do Amaral
People's Monarchist Party (Portugal)}};"		PPM	People's Monarchist Party
Partido Popular Monárquico	Monarchism
Green conservatism	Right-wing	Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles
Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"		PS	Socialist Party
Partido Socialista	Social democracy	Centre-left	Mário Soares	27.3%

	PCP	Portuguese Communist Party
Partido Comunista Português	Communism
Marxism–Leninism	Far-left	Álvaro Cunhal
18.8%

Democratic Electoral Commission}};"		MDP/CDE	Portuguese Democratic Movement
Movimento Democrático Português	Left-wing nationalism
Democratic socialism	Left-wing	José Manuel Tengarrinha
Left Bloc (Portugal)}};"		UDP	Popular Democratic Union
União Democrática Popular	Marxism
Socialism	Left-wing	Mário Tomé	2.2%
	MR	The Reformers
Os Reformadores	Francisco Sousa Tavares (left the Social Democratic Party caucus)
José Medeiros Ferreira (left the Social Democratic Party caucus)
Armando Adão Silva (left the Social Democratic Party caucus)
Nuno Maria Matos (left the Social Democratic Party caucus)
Pelágio Madureira (left the Social Democratic Party caucus)

Seat changes

In January 1980, MPs Francisco Sousa Tavares, José Medeiros Ferreira, Armando Adão Silva, Nuno Maria Matos and Pelágio Madureira, elected in the Democratic Alliance lists, left the Social Democratic Party caucus and formed their own parliamentary group, the Reformers, following the agreement made with AD in order for them to be elected.

Campaign period

Party slogans

Party or alliance	Original slogan	English translation	Refs
	AD	« Garantir o progresso. »	"Ensure progress."
Republican and Socialist Front}}"		FRS	« Um governo para todos. A sua segurança. »	"A government for all. Your safety."
Unitary Democratic Coalition}}"		APU	« Vota APU, para a vitória de Abril »	"Vote APU, for the victory of April"
Left Bloc (Portugal)}}"		UDP	« Abril de novo pela força do povo »	"April again by the strength of the people"

Opinion polling

Polling firm/Link	Date Released	[[File:Bandeira Aliança Democrática.png	35px	link=Democratic Alliance (Portugal, 1979)	AD]]	[[File:Logo Frente Republicana e Socialista.svg	30px
1980 legislative election	5 Oct 1980	47.6
27.8
16.8
1.4
6.4
19.8
Antropos	Sep 1980	52.0	32.4	13.8		1.8	19.6
Norma/Expresso	12 Jul 1980	43.1	22.5	8.9	1.5	24.0	20.6
Antropos	Jul 1980	49.4	34.9	11.9		3.8	14.5
1979 local elections	16 Dec 1979	47.5	28.3	19.9	1.2	3.1	19.2
1979 legislative election	2 Dec 1979	45.3
27.3
18.8
2.2
6.4
17.5

Results

National summary

Distribution by constituency

3.1
4
27.3
1
1.3
-
5
-
10
27.1
4
6.8
1
15
-
22.4
1
21.1
1
3
1.3
-
5
-
9
29.3
5
8.4
1
0.9
-
15
-
3
21.3
1
4.8
-
1.0
-
4
-
4
30.3
2
10.5
-
0.7
-
6
-
6
35.9
5
9.9
1
0.8
-
12
-
29.2
1
18.7
1
3
0.9
-
5
-
4
34.7
4
16.7
1
1.9
-
9
-
4
26.3
1
5.0
-
0.7
-
5
-
7
22.7
3
9.7
1
1.0
-
11
-
25
28.1
17
23.1
13
1.7
1
56
-
2.9
-
4
16.5
1
4.5
-
5
-
2
32.4
1
26.1
1
0.7
-
4
-
19
34.3
14
11.9
5
1.4
-
38
-
6
30.4
4
19.0
2
1.2
-
12
-
24.1
4
23.5
4
9
2.8
-
17
-
5
22.8
1
10.0
-
0.7
-
6
-
5
22.8
1
5.1
-
0.8
-
6
-
8
20.9
2
5.0
-
0.6
-
10
-
1
15.2
-
25.4
1
1.4
-
2
-
2
2.6
-
4.0
-
0.4
-
2
-
- class="unsortable" style="background:#E9E9E9"
126
26.7
71
16.8
41
2.5
8
1.1
3
1.4
1
250
-
}

Maps

File:1980 Portuguese legislative election district results.svg|Winner and seats by constituency. File:Eleições legislativas portuguesas de 1980.png|Most voted political force by municipality.

Aftermath

Death of Francisco Sá Carneiro

Main article: 1980 Camarate air crash

Just two months after winning the 1980 elections, and while campaigning for the Democratic Alliance's candidate for the December 1980 Presidential election, Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and his Defense minister Adelino Amaro da Costa, along with their spouses Snu Abecassis and Maria Vaz Pires, respectively, and the plane's pilot, died in tragic air crash when the small aircraft they were on board crashed and burned in Camarate, Loures, shortly after taking off from the main runway of Lisbon Airport. This tragic air crash sparked a series of conspirancy theories, mainly because of Portugal' involvement in the Iran–Iraq War and the supply of weapons to both Iraq and Iran. Several investigations surrounding the crash were conducted and the official cause of the crash is still a matter of intense debate. Diogo Freitas do Amaral was appointed as Interim Prime Minister until the election of Francisco Pinto Balsemão as PSD leader and subsequent nomination as Prime Minister.

Fall of the government

The Balsemão governments were very unstable due to lack of leadership and deep disagreements between the three parties that composed the Democratic Alliance (AD). In the 1982 local elections, the AD was able to gather 42 percent of the votes, against the 31 percent of the PS and 20.5 percent of APU, but suffered loses and many within the coalition, mainly Diogo Freitas do Amaral, labeled the results as a disaster. With this background, Pinto Balsemão resigned as Prime Minister and the PSD proposed names for Prime Minister to President António Ramalho Eanes. However, President Eanes refused to swear in a new AD government and dissolved Parliament by calling elections for 25 April 1983.

Notes

| The Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Democratic Social Center (CDS) and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM) contested the 1979 election in a coalition called Democratic Alliance (AD) and won a combined 45.3% of the vote and elected 128 MP's to parliament.

| The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MDP/CDE) contested the 1979 election in a coalition called United People Alliance (APU) and won a combined 18.8% of the vote and elected 47 MPs to parliament.

| The Socialist Party (PS), Left-wing Union for the Socialist Democracy (UEDS) and the Independent Social-Democratic Action (ASDI) would contest the 1980 election in a coalition called Republican and Socialist Front (FRS).

| As leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

| As leader of the Socialist Party (PS).

| Alliance formed by the Social Democratic Party (74 seats), the Democratic and Social Centre (46 seats) and the People's Monarchist Party (6 seats).

| Social Democratic Party and Democratic and Social Centre electoral list only in Azores and Madeira.

| Alliance formed by the Socialist Party (63 seats), the Leftwing Union for the Socialist Democracy (4 seats) and the Independent Social-Democratic Action (4 seats).

| Socialist Party electoral list only in Azores and Madeira.

| Portuguese Communist Party (39 MPs) and Portuguese Democratic Movement (2 MPs) ran in coalition.

| Republican and Socialist Front results are compared to the combined totals of the Socialist Party in the 1979 election.

| Results presented here exclude undecideds (15.1%) and doesn't answer (8.2%). With their inclusion results are: AD: 37.9%; FRS: 26.8%; APU: 9.1%; Others/Invalid: 2.9%.

| Results presented here exclude undecideds (17.6%) and doesn't answer (16.4%). With their inclusion results are: AD: 34.4%; FRS: 21.4%; APU: 9.1%; Others/Invalid: 1.2%.

References

[https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/politica/vitoria-de-sa-carneiro-nas-eleicoes-de-1980_v853557 "Vitória de Sá Carneiro nas eleições de 1980 "], ''RTP'', 8 September 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
"Constitution of the Portuguese Republic".
"Effective threshold in electoral systems". Trinity College, Dublin.
Gallaher, Michael (1992). "[https://www.tcd.ie/Political_Science/staff/michael_gallagher/BJPS1992.pdf Comparing Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Quotas, Thresholds, Paradoxes and Majorities]"
"Eleição da Assembleia da República de 5 de Outubro de 1980". CNE - Comissão Nacional de Eleições - Eleição da Assembleia da República de 5 de Outubro de 1980.
[https://www.parlamento.pt/DeputadoGP/Paginas/GruposParlamentaresI.aspx Composição dos Grupos Parlamentares/Partidos]
"Reformadores (dissidentes do PS) - Jose Adelino Maltez".
"Comunicação Política em eleições legislativas em Portugal: uma análise a partir dos cartazes eleitorais (1975-2009)". Francisco Teixeira.
"ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1980 – FRENTE REPUBLICANA E SOCIALISTA (PS + ASDI + UEDS)". EPHEMERA.
"ELEIÇÕES LEGISLATIVAS DE 1980 – APU". EPHEMERA.
"UDP – 1980". EPHEMERA.
(8 September 2015). "Sá Carneiro morre em acidente de aviação". RTP.
(25 August 2020). "Atentado de Camarate. Familiar de vítima acusa republicanos dos EUA". RTP.
(4 December 2020). "Atentado ou acidente? Quarenta anos depois de Camarate, mistério continua por resolver". Jornal Económico.
(9 January 1981). "Tomada de posse do VII Governo Constitucional". RTP.
(16 January 2016). "Um Parlamento dissolvido contra a maioria dos deputados". Expresso.
(8 September 2015). "Presidente da República dissolve Assembleia da República, em 1983". RTP.

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