1983 Portuguese legislative election

1983 Portuguese legislative election

← 1980 25 April 1983 1985 →
250 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 125 seats needed for a majority
Registered	7,337,064 2.2%
Turnout	5,707,695 (77.8%) 6.1 pp
First party Second party   Leader Mário Soares Carlos Mota Pinto Party PS PSD Leader since 19 April 1973 Presumptive Leader's seat Lisbon Coimbra Last election 66 seats, 27.8%[a] 82 seats (AD) Seats won 101 75 Seat change 35 7 Popular vote 2,061,309 1,554,804 Percentage 36.1% 27.2% Swing 8.3 pp [b]   Third party Fourth party   Leader Álvaro Cunhal Francisco Lucas Pires Party PCP CDS Alliance APU Leader since 14 April 1978 20 February 1983 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 41 seats, 16.8% 46 seats (AD) Seats won 44 30 Seat change 3 16 Popular vote 1,031,609 716,705 Percentage 18.1% 12.6% Swing 1.3 pp [b]
Vote winner strength by district Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Francisco Pinto Balsemão PSD Prime Minister after election Mário Soares PS

The 1983 Portuguese legislative election took place on 25 April. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

The last election, in October 1980 had been won by a right-wing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (AD) and Francisco Sá Carneiro had retained office as Prime Minister with an increased majority.

However, Sá Carneiro, along with other important members of the coalition, died in an aircrash only two months after the election, on 4 December 1980. Such happenings caused a massive political instability and Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a senior official of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in the Alliance, became Prime Minister. However, Balsemão's governments were very unstable and after the 1982 local elections results, he resigned as Prime Minister. The Social Democratic Party proposed possible names for Prime Minister to President of Portugal António Ramalho Eanes, but the President refused them and decided to call a snap election for April 1983.

The election was won by the Socialist Party with 36 percent, and Mário Soares was nominated Prime Minister. However, the Socialists lacked a majority in the Assembly of the Republic and were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, which achieved 27 percent, in what was called the "Central Bloc". Although this coalition allowed Soares to govern, several members of both parties were against it, and internal attacks led to the collapse of the coalition after less than two years. In the election that followed, the Communist-dominated United People Alliance lost 3 MPs and the Democratic and Social Center, after the dissolution of the Democratic Alliance, was now alone in the Parliament with 30 MPs, a loss of 16. The election marked the beginning of a process of bi-polarization of Portuguese politics.

This was the last legislative election to be won by the Socialist Party until 1995.
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