Portuguese presidential election, 1986

The Portuguese presidential election of 1986 was held on January 26, the second round took place on February 16.

This was tighest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% at opinion polls.

In first round was easily won by Freitas do Amaral, supported by all the right-wing parties, while Soares defeated the other two left-wing candidates, the former Prime-Minister Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo - to date the only woman to be a candidate to the Portuguese presidency - and Salgado Zenha (supported by outgoing president António Ramalho Eanes, founder of the short-lived Democratic Renovator Party, and by the Portuguese Communist Party, whose candidate, Ângelo Veloso, left the race some days before the poll). Both these candidates supported Soares in the second round.

There were also three candidates rejected by the Portuguese Constitutional Court for not complying with the legal requirements, those were:

* Carmelinda dos Santos Pereira
* Luís Carlos Franco
* Álvaro Manuel Nunes

Soares did not achieved the majority of the voting in any district, as the left-wing strongholds in the South of Portugal voted for Zenha due to his support by the Communist Party.

As results for the second round were counted, the urban vote, traditionally more left-wing, overcame the early lead of Freitas do Amaral by less than 140,000 votes, and Soares became president on March 9 of 1986.

As of 2006, this was the only time a Portuguese presidential election was taken into a second round.

Results

First round

* Registered Voters: 7,617,257
* Turnout: 75.38%

* (Source: [http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb Portuguese Electoral Commission] )

econd round

* Registered Voters: 7,612,733
* Turnout: 77.99%

* (Source: [http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb Portuguese Electoral Commission] )

References

*cite web |title=CNE Resultados |url=http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb| publisher=Comissão Nacional de Eleições| accessdate = 2005-05-17
*cite web |title=Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político|url=http://www.iscsp.utl.pt/~cepp/abertura.php| accessdate = 2005-05-17

ee also

* President of Portugal
* Portugal
* Politics of Portugal