# 1996 Portuguese presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 14 January 1996.
Incumbent president Mário Soares was constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term. The Social Democrats were coming from a clear defeat in the 1995 Portuguese legislative election, and their former leader, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who had left the office of Prime Minister after 10 years at the helm, ran against the Mayor of Lisbon, Jorge Sampaio. This election was, therefore, a rematch between Jorge Sampaio and Cavaco Silva as in the 1991 general election, Cavaco Silva defeated Jorge Sampaio by a 51 to 29 percent margin.
The other left-wing candidates, Jerónimo de Sousa and Alberto Matos, presented by the Portuguese Communist Party and the People's Democratic Union respectively, both withdrew from the race one week before the elections, announcing their support for Jorge Sampaio, in order to concentrate the left-wing vote and avoid a runoff. These parties had already supported Sampaio in a coalition that won the local elections in Lisbon. It would be the last time that People's Democratic Union presented a candidate, as two years later it merged with other small left-wing parties and formed the Left Bloc.
Cavaco Silva was supported by the two major right-wing parties, the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party. On election day, Sampaio won with nearly 54 percent of the votes and by a more than 400,000 vote margin over Cavaco Silva, which gathered just over 46 percent of the votes and, once more, the right-wing parties did not win the presidential election.
Sampaio gained the majority of the votes in all the districts in the South of Portugal, including the Communist strongholds in Alentejo and Setúbal district. Cavaco won in the more conservative districts of the North (excluding Porto district, where Sampaio edged out Cavaco by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin) and also in Leiria district, traditional strongholds of the right-wing parties.
With only two candidates left on the race, no second round was needed, and Sampaio was inaugurated to his first term in office on 9 March 1996.
Aníbal Cavaco Silva would have to wait ten more years to be elected president in 2006.

## 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

* Jorge Sampaio, Mayor of Lisbon between 1989 and 1995, leader of the Socialist Party between 1989 and 1992, supported by the Socialist Party;
* Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister between 1985 and 1995, leader of the Social Democratic Party between 1985 and 1995, supported by the Social Democratic Party and the People's Party;
* Jerónimo de Sousa, Official candidate of the Portuguese Communist Party and Ecologist Party "The Greens", Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio;
* Alberto Matos, Official candidate of the People's Democratic Union, Left the race to support Jorge Sampaio;

## Campaign period
### Party slogans

| Candidate | Original slogan | English translation |
| Jorge Sampaio | « Um por todos » | "One for all" |
| Aníbal Cavaco Silva | « Em nome de Portugal » | "In the name of Portugal" |
| Jerónimo de Sousa | « Contigo isto muda » | "With you this changes" |
| Alberto Matos | « A escolha de um lado » | "Choosing a side" |

### Candidates' debates

1996 Portuguese presidential election debates :
| Date | Organisers | Moderator(s) | P Present  A Absent invitee N Non-invitee | P Present  A Absent invitee N Non-invitee | P Present  A Absent invitee N Non-invitee | P Present  A Absent invitee N Non-invitee |
| Date | Organisers | Moderator(s) | Sampaio | Cavaco | Jerónimo | Refs |
| 14 Dec 1995 | RTP1 | Maria Elisa Domingues José Eduardo Moniz | P | P | P | |
| 21 Dec 1995 | SIC | Margarida Marante Miguel Sousa Tavares | P | P | N | |

## Opinion polls

Note, until 2000, the publication of opinion polls in the last week of the campaign was forbidden.
Exit poll
| Polling firm | Date released | Sample size | | | O/U | Lead |
| Polling firm | Date released | Sample size | Sampaio PS | Cavaco Silva PSD | O/U | Lead |
| Election results | 14 Jan 1996 | — | 53.9 | 46.1 | — | 7.8 |
| Euroteste/RTP | 14 Jan 1996 | — | 56.0–60.0 | 40.0–44.0 | — | 16.0 |
| Metris/SIC | 14 Jan 1996 | — | 56.8–61.2 | 38.8–43.2 | — | 18.0 |
| UCP-CESOP/TVI | 14 Jan 1996 | — | 54.6–58.2 | 41.8–45.6 | — | 12.8 |
| UCP-CESOP | 6 Jan 1996 | — | 52.1 | 47.9 | — | 4.2 |
| Metris | 6 Jan 1996 | — | 57.1 | 42.9 | — | 14.2 |
| Euroteste | 6 Jan 1996 | — | 57.5 | 42.5 | — | 15.0 |
| Euroexpansão | 6 Jan 1996 | — | 57.7 | 42.3 | — | 15.4 |
| Independente | 5 Jan 1996 | — | 56.7 | 43.3 | — | 13.4 |
| Visão | 4 Jan 1996 | — | 51.2 | 38.1 | 10.7 | 13.1 |
| Euroteste | 1 Jan 1996 | — | 58.7 | 41.3 | — | 17.4 |
| Jornal de Notícias | 1 Jan 1996 | — | 50.7 | 42.6 | 6.7 | 8.1 |
| Metris | 30 Dec 1995 | — | 56.4 | 41.7 | 1.9 | 14.7 |
| Euroexpansão | 30 Dec 1995 | — | 58.8 | 40.0 | 1.2 | 18.8 |
| Independente | 29 Dec 1995 | — | 58.3 | 41.7 | — | 16.6 |
| Euroexpansão | 23 Dec 1995 | — | 60.0 | 36.5 | 3.5 | 23.5 |
| Independente | 22 Dec 1995 | — | 56.8 | 43.2 | — | 13.6 |
| UCP-CESOP | 21 Dec 1995 | — | 54.1 | 43.7 | 2.2 | 10.4 |
| Metris | 15 Dec 1995 | — | 53.8 | 42.6 | 3.6 | 11.2 |

## Results

| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| | Jorge Sampaio | Socialist Party | 3,035,056 | 53.91 |
| | Aníbal Cavaco Silva | Social Democratic Party–People's Party | 2,595,131 | 46.09 |
| Total | Total | Total | 5,630,187 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 5,630,187 | 97.70 |
| Invalid votes | Invalid votes | Invalid votes | 63,463 | 1.10 |
| Blank votes | Blank votes | Blank votes | 69,328 | 1.20 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 5,762,978 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 8,693,636 | 66.29 |
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |||||

### Results by district

| District | District | Sampaio | Sampaio | Cavaco | Cavaco | Turnout |
| District | District | Votes | % | Votes | % | Turnout |
| | Aveiro | 162,495 | 43.04% | 215,046 | 56.96% | 69.01% |
| | Azores | 40,746 | 43.60% | 52,715 | 56.40% | 50.81% |
| | Beja | 71,833 | 79.15% | 18,926 | 20.85% | 61.31% |
| | Braga | 204,069 | 45.79% | 241,580 | 54.21% | 71.55% |
| | Bragança | 34,358 | 40.17% | 51,173 | 59.83% | 57.42% |
| | Castelo Branco | 69,136 | 55.50% | 55,428 | 44.50% | 63.13% |
| | Coimbra | 133,644 | 54.37% | 112,181 | 45.63% | 65.90% |
| | Évora | 72,369 | 73.32% | 26,398 | 26.68% | 67.16% |
| | Faro | 110,748 | 58.45% | 78,736 | 41.55% | 63.09% |
| | Guarda | 45,820 | 44.00% | 58,306 | 56.00% | 60.75% |
| | Leiria | 98,577 | 40.41% | 145,352 | 59.59% | 66.95% |
| | Lisbon | 740,987 | 60.98% | 474,060 | 39.02% | 66.75% |
| | Madeira | 49,243 | 39.58% | 75,160 | 60.42% | 62.99% |
| | Portalegre | 52,647 | 69.38% | 23,231 | 30.62% | 66.84% |
| | Porto | 500,903 | 51.82% | 465,803 | 48.18% | 70.28% |
| | Santarém | 149,119 | 57.50% | 110,202 | 42.50% | 67.25% |
| | Setúbal | 313,083 | 74.51% | 107,080 | 25.49% | 67.36% |
| | Viana do Castelo | 58,621 | 41.57% | 82,411 | 58.43% | 64.34% |
| | Vila Real | 51,087 | 39.64% | 77,779 | 60.36% | 59.10% |
| | Viseu | 78,996 | 36.97% | 134,669 | 63.03% | 61.63% |
| Source: SGMAI Presidential Election Results |||||||

### Maps

* Strongest candidate by electoral district.
* Strongest candidate by municipality.