Portuguese legislative election, 2005
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The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on February 20. These elections were called after the decision of President Jorge Sampaio on November 30, 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 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 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 December 11, in an action with no practical effects whatsoever.
The campaign started officially on February 6 and the major topics were the problematic state of the country's finances, unemployment and abortion.
The right-wing parties, mainly the Social Democrats, were punished for their performance in government, and lost more than 10% of the voting. On the left, the Leftwing 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.
The major parties involved, listed with their leaders:
- Leftwing Bloc (BE), Francisco Louçã
- Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU), Jerónimo de Sousa
- Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), José Sócrates
- Social Democratic Party (PSD), Pedro Santana Lopes
- People's Party (PP), Paulo Portas
José Sócrates, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister.
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[edit] National summary of votes and seats
| Party | Votes | % | Change | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socialist Party | 2,588,312 | 45.0% | +7.2% | 121 | |
| Social Democratic Party | 1,653,425 | 28.8% | -11.4% | 75 | |
| Unitarian Democratic Coalition (Portuguese Communist Party + Ecologist Party "The Greens") | 433,369 | 7.6% | +0.6% | 14 | |
| People's Party | 416,415 | 7.3% | -1.5% | 12 | |
| Left Bloc | 364,971 | 6.4% | +3.7% | 8 | |
| Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers | 48,186 | 0.8% | - | 0 | |
| New Democracy | 40,358 | 0.7% | - | 0 | |
| Humanist Party | 17,056 | 0.3% | - | 0 | |
| National Renovator Party | 9,374 | 0.2% | - | 0 | |
| Socialist United Workers' Party | 5,535 | 0.1% | - | 0 | |
| Democratic Party of the Atlantic | 1,618 | 0.0% | - | 0 | |
| Blank Ballots | 103,537 | 1.8% | - | - | |
| Invalid Ballots | 65,515 | 1.1% | - | - | |
| Total (Turnout 64,26 %) | 5,747,834 | - | - | 230 | |
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Note:
- CDU is composed by the PCP (Communist) (12 MPs), the PEV (Green) (2 MPs) and the ID (Socialist) (0 MPs)
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Freire, André; and Marina Costa Lobo (May 2006). "The Portuguese 2005 legislative election: Return to the left". West European Politics 29 (3): 581-588. doi:.
[edit] External links
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