2015 Portuguese legislative election

2015 Portuguese legislative election

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230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic 116 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	9,684,922 0.6%
Turnout	5,408,092 (55.8%) 2.2 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Pedro Passos Coelho António Costa Catarina Martins Party PSD PS BE Alliance PàF Leader since 26 March 2010[a] 28 September 2014 30 November 2014 Leader's seat Lisbon[b] Lisbon Porto Last election 132 seats, 50.4%[c] 74 seats, 28.0% 8 seats, 5.2% Seats won 107 86 19 Seat change 25 12 11 Popular vote 2,085,465 1,747,730 550,945 Percentage 38.6% 32.3% 10.2% Swing 11.8 pp 4.3 pp 5.0 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Jerónimo de Sousa André Silva Party PCP PAN Alliance CDU Leader since 27 November 2004 26 October 2014 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 16 seats, 7.9% 0 seats, 1.0% Seats won 17 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 445,901 75,170 Percentage 8.3% 1.4% Swing 0.4 pp 0.4 pp
Vote winner strength by district Results by constituency PSD ran alone in the Azores and Madeira.
Prime Minister before election Pedro Passos Coelho PSD Prime Minister after election Pedro Passos Coelho PSD (20 October - 26 November 2015)[d] António Costa PS

The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October.^[1] All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention.

The right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead (PàF), composed of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's Party (CDS-PP), won the single largest vote with 38.6 percent and securing almost 47 percent of the seats in the Assembly. Compared with 2011, this was a loss of 12 points in support (although the PSD and the CDS–PP did not contest the 2011 election in coalition). On the electoral map, the coalition won every district in the North and in the Centre except Castelo Branco. They also won in the big districts of Lisbon and Porto. The map shows a clear north–south divide, with the conservative coalition winning almost everything in the North and Centre and the PS winning in the South.

The Socialist Party (PS) was the second most voted political force, winning 32.3 percent of the vote and 37 percent of the seats in the Parliament. The PS received a higher share of the vote than in 2011, but did not increase its share by as much of a margin as had been predicted by the opinion polls prior to September 2015. António Costa, former mayor of Lisbon, was not able to win the city of Lisbon, where the PS lost to PàF by a 35 to 37 percent margin. Although the PS and the other left-wing parties did win a clear overall majority in Parliament, in his concession speech Costa said that he would not support "a negative coalition" with the Left Bloc and Communist Party and that he would rather talk and negotiate with the PSD/CDS–PP coalition.^[2]

The Left Bloc (BE), despite predictions by opinion polls, achieved its best result in history,^[3] with more than 10 percent of the vote, becoming the third largest parliamentary group. The CDU's (Communists and Greens) share of the vote increased slightly compared to 2011, receiving 8 percent of the vote and one additional MP. The People-Animals-Nature (PAN) also elected one member of parliament becoming the first time since 1999 in which a new party entered the Assembly.^[4] Voter turnout reached a new low, with just 55.8 percent of the electorate casting their ballot on election day.^[3]

Passos Coelho was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a minority government that took the oath of office on October 30, 2015. The government fell after the approval of a motion to bring it down on 10 November. On 24 November, António Costa was appointed by the President of the Republic as Prime Minister-designate. Costa was sworn in on 26 November 2015.

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