The Portuguese legislative election of 1991 took place on October 6. The Social Democratic Party, under the lead of Cavaco Silva, won the election easily with an absolute majority for the second consecutive turn, achieving a higher share than in the previous election, losing, however, 13 MPs due to the reduction of the overall number from the original 250 to 230.

The Socialist Party, at the time led by Jorge Sampaio, the former President of Portugal, increased the share by 7% and gained 12 MPs, but did not managed to avoid the absolute majority of the Social Democrats. In the first legislative election after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the communist dominated Unitarian Democratic Coalition lost much of its electoral influence, losing 14 MPs and 4% of the voting.

On the right, the People's Party could not recover its past influence, mainly to the effect of the useful vote by the right-wing voters in the Social Democratic Party, increasing its parliamentary group by only 1 MP. The Party of the National Solidarity, using a populist speech, achieved for the first time an MP, in what would be the only presence of such party in the Parliament.

The major parties involved and the respective leaders:

• Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU), Álvaro Cunhal
• Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Jorge Sampaio
• Social Democratic Party (PSD), Cavaco Silva
• People's Party (CDS/PP), Manuel Monteiro

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was nominated Prime Minister.

National summary of votes and seats

Portuguese legislative election, 1991 (October 6)
Logo	Party	Votes	%	Change	Seats
PSD	2,902,351	50.6%	-	135
PS	1,670,758	29.1%	-	72
CDU	504,583	08.6%	-	17
CDS/PP	254,317	04.4%	-	5
PSN	96,096	01.7%	-	1
PSR	64,159	01.1%	-	0
PCTP/MRPP	48,542	00.9%	-	0
PRD	35,077	00.6%	-	0
PPM	25,216	00.4%	-	0
PDA	10,842	00.2%	-	0
FER	6,661	00.1%	-	0
UDP	6,157	00.1%	-	0
	Blank Ballots	47,652	00.8%	-	-
	Invalid Ballots	63,020	01.1%	-	-
		5,735,431	-	-	230

• Registered Voters: 8,462,357
• Turnout: 67.78%

Note:

• CDU is composed of the PCP (Communist) (15 MPs), the PEV (Green) (2 MPs) and the ID (0 MPs)''

(source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

References

• CNE Resultados. Comissão Nacional de Eleições. Retrieved on 2005-05-17..
• Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político. Retrieved on 2005-05-17..

See also

• Politics of Portugal
• List of political parties in Portugal
• Elections in Portugal