Portuguese legislative election, 2011

Portuguese legislative election, 2011

← 2009 5 June 2011 2015 →
All 230 seats in the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority
Registered	9,624,354 1.1%
Turnout	5,585,054 (58.0%) 1.7 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Pedro Passos Coelho José Sócrates Paulo Portas Party PSD PS CDS–PP Leader since 26 March 2010 29 September 2004 21 April 2007 Leader's seat Vila Real Castelo Branco Aveiro Last election 81 seats, 29.1% 97 seats, 36.6% 21 seats, 10.4% Seats won 108 74 24 Seat change 27 23 3 Popular vote 2,159,181 1,566,347 653,888 Percentage 38.7% 28.0% 11.7% Swing 9.6% pp 8.6% pp 1.3% pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Jerónimo de Sousa Francisco Louçã Party CDU BE Leader since 27 November 2004 24 March 1999 Leader's seat Lisbon Lisbon Last election 15 seats, 7.9% 16 seats, 9.8% Seats won 16 8 Seat change 1 8 Popular vote 441,147 288,923 Percentage 7.9% 5.2% Swing ±0.0 pp 4.6 pp
The first and the second most voted parties in each district (Azores and Madeira are not shown)
Prime Minister before election José Sócrates PS Prime Minister-designate Pedro Passos Coelho PSD

José Sócrates
PS

Pedro Passos Coelho
PSD

A general election was held in Portugal on 5 June 2011 to elect all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.Pedro Passos Coelho led the centre-right Social Democratic Party to victory over the Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates. Despite a historically low turnout of less than 60% of registered voters, the right-wing won a clear mandate, winning nearly 130 MPs, more than 56% of the seats, and just over 50% of the vote. While the People's Party, continuing the trend they began in 2009, earned their best score since 1983, the Social Democrats exceeded the expected result in the opinion polls and won the same number of seats as they did in 2002, when the PSD was led by José Manuel Durão Barroso. Of the twenty districts of the country, Pedro Passos Coelho's party won seventeen, including Lisbon, Porto, Faro and the Azores, which has been governed by the Socialists since 1996.

The defeat of the PS was severe, as they lost in eleven districts and fell below 30% of the votes cast, a first since the election of 1991. This heavy defeat led José Sócrates to resign as General Secretary of the party on election night. However, it was not the Socialists' worst result, which dated back to 1987 when they polled 30 points behind the Social Democrats. The Socialists were also beaten in José Sócrates district, Castelo Branco, that he dominated since 1995.