2005 Portuguese legislative election

The 2005 Portuguese legislative election took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

2005 Portuguese legislative election
20 February 2005
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered8,944,508 0.5%
Turnout5,747,834 (64.3%)
2.8 pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader José Sócrates Pedro Santana Lopes Jerónimo de Sousa
Party PS PSD PCP
Alliance CDU
Leader since 26 September 2004 1 July 2004 27 November 2004
Leader's seat Castelo Branco Lisbon Lisbon
Last election 96 seats, 37.8% 105 seats, 40.2% 12 seats, 6.9%
Seats won 121 75 14
Seat change 25 30 2
Popular vote 2,588,312 1,653,425 433,369
Percentage 45.0% 28.8% 7.5%
Swing 7.2 pp 11.4 pp 0.6 pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Paulo Portas Francisco Louçã
Party CDS–PP BE
Leader since 22 March 1998 24 March 1999
Leader's seat Aveiro Lisbon
Last election 14 seats, 8.7% 3 seats, 2.7%
Seats won 12 8
Seat change 2 5
Popular vote 416,415 364,971
Percentage 7.2% 6.4%
Swing 1.5 pp 3.6 pp
Prime Minister before election

Pedro Santana Lopes
PSD

 Prime Minister after election

José Sócrates
PS

These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on 30 November 2004 to dissolve the Parliament as an answer to the political instability caused by the government led by Pedro Santana Lopes (PSD) in coalition with the PP. Santana Lopes had become Prime Minister in July 2004, after José Manuel Durão Barroso left the country in order to become President of the European Commission in a decision that divided the country, because many Portuguese were expecting that the Socialist President Jorge Sampaio would dissolve the Parliament and call a legislative election. However, after five unstable months, President Sampaio decided to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections. The Prime Minister nevertheless announced the resignation of the government on 11 December, in an action with no practical effects whatsoever.

The campaign started officially on 6 February and the major topics were the problematic state of the country's finances, unemployment, abortion and even José Sócrates's alleged homosexuality.

Headed by Sócrates, the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) won the election with a landslide victory, winning in 19 of the 22 electoral constituencies, including in districts such as Viseu and Bragança that historically voted for the right. The Socialist Party conquered its first absolute majority, receiving 45% of the electorate vote and 52% of the seats in the Parliament, making this the Socialists' largest ever victory in terms of vote percentage and seat count as of 2022. The centre-right parties, mainly the Social Democrats, were punished for their performance in government, and lost more than 11% of votes they had garnered in the previous election. On the left, the Left Bloc achieved its best result ever and made the biggest climb, gaining 5 MPs, while the CDU (Communists and the Greens) gained 2 MPs and reversed their downward trend of the last elections.

Voter turnout was the highest since 1995, as 64.3% of the electorate cast a ballot.

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