1969 Portuguese legislative election

Portuguese legislative election, 1969

26 October 1969
130 seats to the National Assembly 65 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Marcelo Caetano Francisco Pereira de Moura Mario Soares Party UN Democratic Electoral Commission CEUD Last election 130 seats none none Seats won 130 0 0 Seat change 0 0 0 Popular vote 981,263 114,745 16,863 Percentage 88.0% 10.2% 1.5%
Prime Minister before election Marcelo Caetano UN Prime Minister-elect Marcelo Caetano UN

Parliamentary elections were held in Portugal on 26 October 1969. The elections were announced on 12 August, and were the first under Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano, appointed in the previous year to replace long-term Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who had been left incapacitated after a stroke. The quasi-sovereign National Union won all seats with an official turnout of 62.5%.

Electoral system

The constitution of 1933 stated that elections were to be held in all of Portugal's 18 constituencies by majority party list system, with all seats in each constituency going to the party list with a plurality of votes. In order to select a specific candidate, voters were constitutionally able to stroke out names.

The electoral law of 5 December 1958 (rearranged to allow for the National Assembly to appoint the President) guaranteed universal suffrage for all mature, literate citizens, but unofficially curtailed female participation. All natural-born nationals residing in Portugal for the previous five years were allowed to stand for election.

The Chamber of Corporations, consisting of 200 members or more was appointed by the government following the election to the National Assembly. The Electoral Commissions were officially banned on November 8, with numerous candidates having retired prematurely due to reportedly extensive harassment and voter manipulation.

Results

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #002E79;" data-sort-value="National Union (Portugal)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: darkred;" data-sort-value="Democratic Electoral Commission" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: red;" data-sort-value="United Democratic Electoral Commission" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: darkblue;" data-sort-value="Monarchist Electoral Commission" |

 Summary of the 26 October 1969 National Assembly elections results

Parties		Votes	%	±	Seats
					1965	1969	±	%	±
UN	981,263	87.99	12.0	130	130	0	100.00	0.0
Democratic	114,745	10.29	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
United Democratic	16,863	1.51	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
Monarchist	1,324	0.12	—	—	0	—	0.00	—
Total valid		1,114,195	99.91	—	130	130	0	100.00	0.0
Invalid/Blank ballots		1,053	0.09	—
Total		1,115,248	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,784,341	62.50	11.1
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union