Portuguese Legislative Election 2019 Voting Live

Portuguese Legislative Election 2019 Voting Live 

Portuguese Legislative Election Date:  6 October 2019

The Portuguese legislative election of 2019 was held on 6 October 2019. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic were at stake.

The Socialist Party (PS) won the elections with almost 37% of the votes and gained, until now and when the overseas voting is still to be counted, 106 seats, a gain of 20 compared with 2015. The PS won the big districts of Porto and Lisbon, although Porto was closer than expected, and was able to gain districts from the PSD, like Aveiro and Viana do Castelo, however, by razor-thin margins. The PS won Lisbon city, however with a smaller share of the vote compared with 2015, 33% vs 35%, and, surprisingly, lost Porto city to the PSD.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) got 28% of the votes and won 77 seats, with overseas voting still out. The party lost 9 seats compared with 2015, and, in terms of share of vote, it was the worst result since 1983, however in terms of seats, it was the worst result since 2005 when the party won 75 seats. The PSD was able to hold won to their bastion of Viseu, Vila Real, Braganza, Leiria and Madeira. On election night, PSD leader Rui Rio classified the results as "not a disaster" and left the door open to continue as party leader. But, many in the party, days after the election, accuse him of being a loser and want new leadership.

The Left Bloc (BE) achieved basically the same results as of 2015. They won almost 10% of the votes and held on to the 19 seats they've got in 2015. On election night, Catarina Martins said she was open to new negotiations with the PS. CDU, PCP-PEV coalition, suffered heavy losses by achieving their worst results in history, just 6.5% of the votes and 12 seats, and Jerónimo de Sousa, PCP leader, said on election night, that written agreements with the PS are off the table. CDS – People's Party was without any doubt the biggest loser in these elections. The party also achieved their worst result in history, 4.3% of the votes, and got a parliamentary caucus reduced to just 5 seats, the lowest since 1991 and when the party was called the "taxi party". Assunção Cristas, CDS leader, resigned on election night and called for a new congress and announced she would not run for reelection. People-Animals-Nature (PAN) saw a big increase in its share of the vote, winning 3.3% and 4 seats, from Lisbon, Porto and Setúbal.

This election was marked by the entry of 3 new parties in Parliament. The right-wing/far-right party Enough! (CH) was one of the big surprises on election night by electing an MP from Lisbon. It's the first time in Portuguese democracy that a right-wing/far-right party is represented in Parliament. LIVRE and Liberal Initiative also elected one MP from Lisbon. Another surprise was the big failure of former Prime Minister and PSD leader Pedro Santana Lopes new party, Alliance, as it failed to win a single seat and polled bellow 1% of the votes.

The turnout in these elections is expected to be the lowest ever in general elections in Portugal and bellow 50% when the overseas voting is counted. In Portugal alone, 54.5% of voters cast a ballot, a drop compared with the 57% in the 2015 elections.

Portuguese Legislative Election Voting Live 2019

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The Electoral system of Portugal

The Parliament of the Portuguese Republic consists of a single chamber, the Assembly of the Republic, composed of 230 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a maximum term of four years. Assembly members represent the entire country, rather than the constituencies in which they were elected. 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 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.

Each one of Portugal's eighteen administrative districts, as well as each one of the country's two autonomous regions – the Azores and Madeira – is an electoral constituency. Portuguese voters residing outside the national territory are grouped into two electoral constituencies – Europe and the rest of the world – each one of which elects two Assembly members. The remaining 226 seats are allocated among the national territory constituencies in proportion to their number of registered electors.

Political parties and party coalitions may present lists of candidates. The lists are closed, so electors may not choose individual candidates in or alter the order of such lists. Electors cast a ballot for a single list. The seats in each constituency are apportioned according to the largest average method of proportional representation (PR), conceived by the Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt in 1899. Although there is no statutory threshold for participation in the allocation of Assembly seats, the application of the D'Hondt method introduces a de facto threshold at the constituency level.

Portugal election results 2019

Portugal Parties and leaders

Portugal past election results