1986 Portuguese presidential election

1986 Portuguese presidential election

← 1980 26 January 1986 (first round) 16 February 1986 (second round) 1991 →
Turnout	75.39% (first round) 9.00pp 77.99% (second round)
Candidate Mário Soares Diogo Freitas do Amaral Party PS CDS Popular vote 3,010,756 2,872,064 Percentage 51.18% 48.82%
First round results by district First round results by municipality Second round results by district Second round results by municipality Soares   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Amaral   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%   >90% Zenha   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%
President before election António Ramalho Eanes Independent Elected President Mário Soares PS

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 26 January 1986, with a second round on 16 February.

This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5 percent 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 –the first 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 Renewal 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.

Soares did not achieve 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 9 March 1986, the first civilian to hold the post (not counting caretakers) in 60 years.

As of 2021^[update], this was the only time a Portuguese presidential election was taken into a second round.