PORTUGUESE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1986

The 'Portuguese presidential election of 1986' was held on 'January 26', the second round took place on 'February 16'.
This was tighest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% 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 - to date the only woman to be a candidate to the Portuguese presidency - and Salgado Zenha (supported by outgoing president António Ramalho Eanes, founder of the short-lived Party of Democratic Renewal, 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.
There were also three candidates rejected by the Portuguese Constitutional Court for not complying with the legal requirements, those were:

★ Carmelinda dos Santos Pereira

★ Luís Carlos Franco

★ Álvaro Manuel Nunes
Soares did not achieved 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 March 9 of 1986.
As of 2006, this was the only time a Portuguese presidential election was taken into a second round.

Contents

Results

First round

Second round

References

See also

Results

First round

'Portuguese Presidential Election, 1986 - First Round (January 26)'
Candidate	Party	Vote	Percent
Diogo Freitas do Amaral	CDS	2,629,597	45.8%
Mário Alberto Soares	PS	1,443,683	25.1%
Francisco Salgado Zenha	Independent	1,185,867	20.6%
Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo	Independent	418,961	07.3%
Ângelo Matos Veloso	PCP (left the race)	0	00.0%
Invalid Ballots		46,334	00.8%
Blank Ballots		18,292	00.3%
Total:		5,742,151	-

★ Registered Voters: '7,617,257'

★ Turnout: '75.38%'

★ (Source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

Second round

'Portuguese Presidential Election, 1986 - Second Round (February 16)'
Candidate	Party	Vote	Percent
Mário Alberto Soares	PS	3,010,756	50.7%
Diogo Freitas do Amaral	CDS	2,872,064	48.4%
Invalid Ballots		33,844	00.6%
Blank Ballots		20,436	00.3%
Total:		5,937,100	-

★ Registered Voters: '7,612,733'

★ Turnout: '77.99%'

★ (Source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

References

★ CNE Resultados

★ Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político

See also

★ President of Portugal

★ Portugal

★ Politics of Portugal