Elections in Portugal

Elections in Portugal are free, fair, and regularly held, in accordance with election law.

Only the elections since the Carnation Revolution of 1974 are listed here. During the period encompassing the Constitutional Monarchy and the First Republic there were also elections, but only for a limited universe of voters. During the Estado Novo regime, from 1926 to 1974, the few elections held were not up to the democratic standards of their time and never resulted in power transfer.

Portugal elects on a national level the President and the national Parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. The President is elected for a five-year term by the people while the Parliament has 230 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, the districts. Also on a national level, Portugal elects 21 members of the European Parliament.

The Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira elect their own regional government for a four-year term, usually on the same day. The first regional elections were held in 1976.

On a local level, 308 Municipal Chambers and Municipal Assemblies and 3,092 Parish Assemblies are elected for a four-year term in separate elections that usually occur on the same day.

Electoral system
The Assembly of the Republic has 230 members elected to four-year terms. Governments do not require absolute majority support of the Assembly to hold office, as even if the number of opposers of government is larger than that of the supporters, the number of opposers still needs to be equal or greater than 116 (absolute majority) for both the Government's Programme to be rejected or for a motion of no confidence to be approved.

The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. The use of the d'Hondt method makes for a higher effective threshold than certain other allocation methods such as the Hare quota or Sainte-Laguë method, which are more generous to small parties.

For the 2024 legislative elections, the MPs were distributed by districts as follows:

Election results 1975–2024
Parties are listed from left-wing to right-wing.

Presidential elections
Under the Portuguese Constitution adopted in 1976, in the wake of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, the President is elected to a five-year term; there is no limit to the number of terms a president may serve, but a president who serves two consecutive terms may not serve again in the next five years after the second term finishes or in the following five years after his resignation. The official residence of the Portuguese President is the Belém Palace.

The President is elected in a two-round system: if no candidate reaches 50% of the votes during the first round, the two candidates with the most votes face each other in a second round held two weeks later. , the 1986 presidential election was the only time a Portuguese presidential election was taken into a second round.

The most recent election was held in 2021 and the next is expected to be in 2026.

2021 presidential election
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|Supporting parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan="2"|First round !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|%
 * style="width: 10px" bgcolor=#FF9900 align="center" |
 * align=left|Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
 * align=left|Social Democratic Party, People's Party
 * align="right" |2,531,692
 * align="right" |60.66
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#D02090 align="center" |
 * align=left|Ana Gomes
 * align=left|Independent supported by People–Animals–Nature, LIVRE
 * align="right" |540,823
 * align="right" |12.96
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#202056 align="center" |
 * align=left|André Ventura
 * align=left|CHEGA
 * align="right" |497,746
 * align="right" |11.93
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor=red align="center" |
 * align=left|João Ferreira
 * align=left|Portuguese Communist Party, Ecologist Party "The Greens"
 * align="right" |179,764
 * align="right" |4.31
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor= align="center" |
 * align=left|Marisa Matias
 * align=left|Left Bloc, Socialist Alternative Movement
 * align="right" |165,127
 * align="right" |3.96
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor=#00ADEF align="center" |
 * align=left|Tiago Mayan Gonçalves
 * align=left|Liberal Initiative
 * align="right" |134,991
 * align="right" |3.23
 * style="width: 5px" bgcolor=LightSeaGreen align="center" |
 * align=left|Vitorino Silva
 * align=left|React, Include, Recycle
 * align="right" |123,031
 * align="right" |2.95
 * colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid
 * width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,173,174
 * width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * align=right colspan="3"|Blank ballots
 * width="65" align="right" |47,164
 * width="40" align="right" |1.11
 * align=right colspan="3" |Invalid ballots
 * width="65" align="right"|38,018
 * width="40" align="right"|0.89
 * colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total
 * width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,258,356
 * width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * colspan=3|Registered voters/turnout
 * 10,847,434||39.26
 * colspan=5 align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
 * }
 * align=right colspan="3" |Invalid ballots
 * width="65" align="right"|38,018
 * width="40" align="right"|0.89
 * colspan="3" align=left style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total
 * width="65" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|4,258,356
 * width="40" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * colspan=3|Registered voters/turnout
 * 10,847,434||39.26
 * colspan=5 align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
 * }
 * colspan=5 align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições
 * }
 * }

Local elections

 * 1976 Portuguese local elections
 * 1979 Portuguese local elections
 * 1982 Portuguese local elections
 * 1985 Portuguese local elections
 * 1989 Portuguese local elections
 * 1993 Portuguese local elections
 * 1997 Portuguese local elections
 * 2001 Portuguese local elections
 * 2005 Portuguese local elections
 * 2009 Portuguese local elections
 * 2013 Portuguese local elections
 * 2017 Portuguese local elections
 * 2021 Portuguese local elections

The next local elections are scheduled to be held in September/October 2025.

Autonomous Regions elections
Portugal has two autonomous regions, Azores and Madeira, that elect their own representatives for the regional parliaments every 4 years. The first elections were in 1976 and usually they were both held in the same day until 2007 when Madeira held an early election and Azores held its election the next year. The last election in Azores was on 4 February 2024, and Madeira held a snap election on 26 May 2024.


 * Elections in Azores
 * Elections in Madeira

European Parliament elections

 * European Parliament election, 1987
 * European Parliament election, 1989
 * European Parliament election, 1994
 * European Parliament election, 1999
 * European Parliament election, 2004
 * European Parliament election, 2009
 * European Parliament election, 2014
 * European Parliament election, 2019
 * European Parliament election, 2024

Referendums
The Constitution of Portugal defines referendum in Article 115. The referendum is called by the President of Portugal, on a proposal submitted by the Assembly or the Government. The President can refuse a proposal for referendum submitted to him by the Assembly or the Government if it is found to be unconstitutional or illegal. Referendums are binding if turnout is higher than 50% of registered voters.

Citizens of Portugal have the right to submit to the Assembly an initiative for a referendum.

The referendum can be held only on "important issues concerning the national interest which the Assembly of the Republic or the Government must decide by approving an international convention or passing a legislative act" (paragraph 3 ). The referendum cannot be held on amendments to the Constitution, budget, taxes, finances and competences of the Assembly, except when issue is the object of an international convention, except when the international convention concerns peace or the rectification of borders.

There have been four nationwide referendums in the History of Portugal:
 * Constitutional referendum, in 1933
 * First abortion referendum, in 1998
 * Regionalization referendum, in 1998
 * Second abortion referendum, in 2007

The Constitutional referendum of 1933 did not comply with the standards of a democratic suffrage, as, for example, abstentions were counted as supportive votes. It resulted in the establishing of the Estado Novo regime.

The later three referendums, held in the context of a Western-style liberal democracy had turnout less than 50%, so they were not binding. Nonetheless, decisions of all three referendums were honoured.