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	Portugal
	; This article is part of the series:; Politics and government of; Portugal

	‹ 1980 1991 ›
Portuguese presidential election, 1986
January 26, 1986; February 16, 1986
	Incumbent President; António Ramalho Eanes; PS President-elect; Mário Soares; PS

The Portuguese presidential election of 1986 was held on January 26, the second round took place on February 16.

This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 5% at opinion polls.

In first round was easily won by Freitas do Amaral, supported by all the right-wing parties, while Soares defeated the other two left-wing candidates, the former Prime-Minister Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo - to date the only woman to be a candidate to the Portuguese presidency - and Salgado Zenha (supported by outgoing president António Ramalho Eanes, founder of the short-lived Democratic Renovator Party, and by the Portuguese Communist Party, whose candidate, Ângelo Veloso, left the race some days before the poll). Both these candidates supported Soares in the second round.

There were also three candidates rejected by the Portuguese Constitutional Court for not complying with the legal requirements, those were:

Carmelinda dos Santos Pereira
Luís Carlos Franco
Álvaro Manuel Nunes

Soares did not achieved the majority of the voting in any district, as the left-wing strongholds in the South of Portugal voted for Zenha due to his support by the Communist Party.

As results for the second round were counted, the urban vote, traditionally more left-wing, overcame the early lead of Freitas do Amaral by less than 140,000 votes, and Soares became president on March 9 of 1986.

To date this was the only time a Portuguese presidential election was taken into a second round.

[edit] Results

[edit] First round

e • d
Portuguese Presidential Election, 1986 - First Round (January 26)
Candidate		Supporting parties	Votes	%
	Diogo Freitas do Amaral	CDS, PSD	2,629,597	46.31
	Mário Soares	PS	1,443,683	25.43
	Francisco Salgado Zenha	PRD, PCP	1,185,867	20.88
	Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo	Independent	418,961	7.38
	Invalid Ballots		46,334
	Blank Ballots		18,292
Total			5,742,151	100.00

Registered Voters: 7,617,257
Turnout: 75.38%

(Source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

[edit] Second round

e • d
Portuguese Presidential Election, 1986 - Secound Round (February 16)
Candidate		Supporting parties	Votes	%
	Mário Soares	PS	3,010,756	51.18
	Diogo Freitas do Amaral	CDS, PSD	2,872,064	48.82
	Invalid Ballots		33,844
	Blank Ballots		20,436
Total			5,937,100	100.00

Registered Voters: 7,612,733
Turnout: 77,99%

(Source: Portuguese Electoral Commission)

[edit] References

"CNE Resultados". Comissão Nacional de Eleições. http://eleicoes.cne.pt/cne2005/sel_eleicoes.cfm?m=raster#assemb. Retrieved 2005-05-17.
"Centro de Estudos do Pensamento Político". http://www.iscsp.utl.pt/~cepp/abertura.php. Retrieved 2005-05-17.

[edit] See also

Contents

[edit] Results

[edit] First round

[edit] Second round

[edit] References

[edit] See also