2006 Portuguese presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 22 January 2006 to elect a successor to the incumbent President Jorge Sampaio, who was term-limited from running for a third consecutive term by the Constitution of Portugal. The result was a victory in the first round for Aníbal Cavaco Silva of the Social Democratic Party candidate, the former Prime Minister, won 50.54 percent of the vote in the first round, just over the majority required to avoid a runoff election. It was the first time in which a right-wing candidate was elected President of the Republic since the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Voter turnout was 62 percent.

Background
In the presidential election of 14 January 2001, the outgoing Socialist Jorge Sampaio was re-elected in the first round with 55 percent of votes. Because he was term-limited, he was forbidden, by the Constitution, to run for a third consecutive term.

In the parliamentary elections of 20 February 2005, the Socialist Party, led by José Sócrates, won for the first time in its history with an absolute majority of seats, while the Social Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes fell below 30 percent, their worst result since 1983.

To cope with the bad fiscal situation, the government introduced a policy of fiscal restraint, combining higher taxes, lower public treatments and privatizations. Adding to this, a bad summer in terms of wildfires put more pressure in the government. This policies were not popular and as a result, the Socialists were defeated in the local elections on 9 October 2005. In the follow-up for the presidential elections, the Socialists decided to nominate their former secretary-general, Mário Soares, President of the Republic between 1986 and 1996. This decision divided the party, which led Manuel Alegre, a member of the party parliamentary group, to announce his candidature as an independent. The Social Democratic Party opted to support their former leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, and presidential candidate defeated in 1996.

Electoral system
Any Portuguese citizen over 35 years old has the opportunity to run for president. In order to do so it is necessary to gather between 7,500 and 15,000 signatures and submit them to the Portuguese Constitutional Court.

According to the Portuguese Constitution, to be elected, a candidate needs a majority of votes. If no candidate gets this majority there will take place a second round between the two most voted candidates.

Candidates
Thirteen citizens sought election officially, but only six gathered the 7,500 signatures required under the constitution to be a candidate in the poll:

Official candidates

 * Manuel Alegre, a Socialist Party politician who ran without the official backing of his party;
 * Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, supported by the Social Democratic Party and by the People's Party;
 * Francisco Louçã, coordinator of the political commission of the Left Bloc;
 * Garcia Pereira, Secretary-General of the PCTP/MRPP;
 * Mário Soares, President from 1986 to 1996, the official candidate of the Socialist Party; and
 * Jerónimo de Sousa, Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party, also supported by the Ecologist Party "The Greens".

All the candidates except for Cavaco Silva are considered to be from the Portuguese political left.

Unsuccessful candidacies
The other potential candidates who, according to the Constitutional Court, did not gather enough signatures, were:
 * Josué Rodrigues Gonçalo Pedro;
 * Luís Filipe Guerra, leader of the Humanist Party;
 * Teresa Lameiro;
 * Manuela Magno, nuclear physicist;
 * Carmelinda Pereira, leader of the Workers Party of Socialist Unity (POUS);
 * Luís Botelho Ribeiro; and
 * Diamantino da Silva;

Voter turnout
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas. Due to lack of data from the 2001 election, it's not possible to compare the turnout throughout election day between the two elections.