Portuguese legislative election, 1999

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10 October 1999

2002 →

230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly
116 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	António Guterres	José Manuel Barroso
Party	PS	PSD
Leader since	23 February 1992	27 May 1999
Leader's seat	Castelo Branco	Lisbon
Last election	112 seats, 43.8%	88 seats, 34.1%
Seats won	115	81
Seat change	3	7
Popular vote	2,385,922	1,750,158
Percentage	44.1%	32.3%
Swing	0.3%	1.8%

Prime Minister before election

António Guterres
PS

Elected Prime Minister

António Guterres
PS

Portugal
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Portugal

António Guterres
PS

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Portugal

The Portuguese legislative election of 1999 took place on 10 October. The Socialist Party was aiming a second term under the lead of António Guterres, in the end the Socialists won the election, but missed what would be an historical absolute majority for the party by just one MP.

The Social Democratic Party under the lead of José Manuel Durão Barroso was still away from the preferences of the majority of the Portuguese people, after the ten years cycle under the lead of Cavaco Silva that had terminated four years before. The Democratic Unity Coalition achieved an important climb in the scorecard, against those who predicted its irreversible decline after the end of the Socialist Bloc in the early 1990s. For the first time, the Left Bloc, formed after the merger of several minor left-wing parties became represented in the parliament after electing two MPs. Turnout in this election was very low, only being surpassed in 2009 and 2011 when turnout was just less than 60%.

Voter turnout reached only 61% of voters, one of the lowest ever recorded.

The major parties involved were listed with their leaders:

António Guterres, leader of the Socialist Party, was nominated Prime Minister for the second time, and missed the absolute majority by one MP, achieving exactly half of the 230 MPs.

The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed are currently represented in parliament. Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1995 and 1999 for reference.

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