| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
230 seats to the Portuguese Assembly 116 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Registered | 8,902,713 0.4% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 5,473,655 (61.5%) 0.4 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The 2002 Portuguese legislative election took place on 17 March. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
These elections were called after the resignation of the then incumbent Prime Minister, António Guterres after the defeat of the Socialist Party in the 2001 local elections. That fact, plus the problematic state of the country's finances were the main arguments of the right-wing parties, which led them to be the favourites to win the election.
With just over 40% of the votes cast, the Social Democrats regained the status as the largest political force in Portugal, although the Socialists won almost 38% of the vote. This was the closest legislative election in Portuguese democracy until 2024. This short distance also appears on the electoral map, with each party winning eleven of the 22 districts, while the PS won the most populous, Lisbon and Porto. As a result, the Social Democrats fail to win the absolute majority they had between 1987 and 1995.
As no Party got an absolute majority, the Social Democrats formed a coalition with the right-wing People's Party. The left-wing Democratic Unity Coalition achieved the lowest result ever, finishing in the third place in its traditional strongholds, Évora and Setúbal. The Left Bloc gained one MP. Turnout was slightly higher than it was in 1999 but remained quite low, marking a growing separation between the politics and the Portuguese people, mainly due to the image of the politicians as corrupts and the idea that all the parties are the same.
Voter turnout was slightly higher than in 1999, as 61.5% of the electorate cast a ballot.
After the disappointing results of the Socialist Party (PS) in the 1999 elections, the PS government entered in a series of crisis. [6] Resignations of ministers from government and incapacity of passing legislation in Parliament led to controversial, and weird, alliances, like the 2000 and 2001 budgets which were approved by a sole CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) Member of Parliament, Daniel Campelo, in exchange for the government approving a cheese factory in Campelo's hometown, Ponte de Lima. [7]
The Socialist Party suffered a big, and unexpected, defeat in the December 2001 local elections. [8] The party lost major cities across the country, mainly Lisbon, Porto, Sintra and Coimbra to the Social Democratic Party. Due to this surprising defeat, Prime Minister António Guterres announced he was to tender his resignation as Prime Minister in order to avoid the country falling "into a political swamp". [9] Shortly after, President Jorge Sampaio accepted Guterres resignation and called snap elections for March 2002. [10]
After the 1999 election defeat, Durão Barroso's leadership started to be challenged and criticized. [11] In January 2000, Durão Barroso called a snap party congress to resolve the leadership dispute. [12] Alongside Barroso, Pedro Santana Lopes and Luís Marques Mendes also ran. Durão Barroso was reelected as PSD leader and the results were the following:
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
José Manuel Durão Barroso | 469 | 50.3 | |
Pedro Santana Lopes | 313 | 33.6 | |
Luís Marques Mendes | 150 | 16.1 | |
Turnout | 932 | ||
Source: Results |
Following the resignation of António Guterres as Prime Minister and PS leader, [13] the party started the process to elect a new leader. The popular minister in Guterres cabinet, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, and PS member Paulo Penedos, were the two candidates on the ballot. Around 121,000 PS members were registered to vote. [14] In the end, Ferro Rodrigues got almost unanimous support by being elected with almost 97% of the votes. [15] The results were the following:
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues | 96.5 | ||
Paulo Penedos | 2.7 | ||
Blank/Invalid ballots | 0.8 | ||
Turnout | |||
Source: Results |
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. [16]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude. [17] 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. [18]
For these elections, and compared with the 1999 elections, the MPs distributed by districts were the following: [19]
District | Number of MPs | Map |
---|---|---|
Lisbon (–1) | 48 | |
Porto (+1) | 38 | |
Braga (+1) | 18 | |
Setúbal | 17 | |
Aveiro | 15 | |
Leiria, Santarém and Coimbra | 10 | |
Viseu | 9 | |
Faro | 8 | |
Viana do Castelo | 6 | |
Azores, Castelo Branco, Madeira and Vila Real | 5 | |
Bragança and Guarda | 4 | |
Beja, Évora (–1) and Portalegre | 3 | |
Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
The table below lists the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic during the 8th legislature (1999–2002) and that also partook in the election:
Name | Ideology | Political position | Leader | 1999 result | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | Seats | ||||||
PS | Socialist Party Partido Socialista | Social democracy | Centre-left | Ferro Rodrigues | 44.1% | 115 / 230 | |
PPD/PSD | Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrata | Liberal conservatism Classical liberalism | Centre-right | José Manuel Durão Barroso | 32.3% | 81 / 230 | |
PCP | Portuguese Communist Party Partido Comunista Português | Communism Marxism–Leninism | Far-left | Carlos Carvalhas | 9.0% [lower-alpha 1] | 15 / 230 | |
PEV | Ecologist Party "The Greens" Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" | Eco-socialism Green politics | Left-wing | Isabel Castro | 2 / 230 | ||
CDS-PP | CDS – People's Party Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular | Christian democracy Conservatism | Centre-right to right-wing | Paulo Portas | 8.3% | 15 / 230 | |
BE | Left Bloc Bloco de Esquerda | Democratic socialism Anti-capitalism | Left-wing | Francisco Louçã | 2.4% | 2 / 230 | |
Party or alliance | Original slogan | English translation | Refs | |
---|---|---|---|---|
PS | « Fazer bem » | "Doing well" | [20] | |
PSD | « Somos todos Portugal » | "We are all Portugal" | [21] | |
CDU | « Mudar para melhor » | "Change for the better" | [22] | |
CDS–PP | « O braço direito de Portugal » | "Portugal's right-hand man" | [23] | |
BE | « Com Razões Fortes » | "With Strong Reasons" | [24] |
2002 Portuguese legislative election debates | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Organisers | Moderator(s) | P Present A Absent invitee N Non-invitee | ||||||||||||||||||
PS Rodrigues | PSD Barroso | CDU Carvalhas | CDS–PP Portas | BE Louçã | Refs | ||||||||||||||||
26 Feb | SIC | P | P | N | N | N | [25] | ||||||||||||||
12 Mar | RTP1 | Judite de Sousa José Alberto Carvalho | P | P | P | P | P | [26] |
The following table shows the opinion polls of voting intention of the Portuguese voters before the election. Those parties that are listed were represented in parliament (1999-2002). Included is also the result of the Portuguese general elections in 1999 and 2002 for reference.
Exit poll
Date Released | Polling Firm | PS | Others | Lead | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
17 Mar 2002 | Leg. election | 37.8 96 | 40.2 105 | 6.9 12 | 8.7 14 | 2.7 3 | 3.7 0 | 2.4 | |
17 Mar 2002 (20:00) | RTP1 - Universidade Católica | 36.0–41.0 | 37.0–42.0 | 5.5–8.0 | 7.5–10.0 | 3.0–4.0 | — | 1.0 | |
17 Mar 2002 (20:00) | SIC - Eurosondagem | 35.5–39.3 | 40.1–43.9 | 6.2–8.4 | 6.2–8.4 | 2.0–3.4 | — | 4.6 | |
17 Mar 2002 (20:00) | TVI - INTERCAMPUS | 35.5–40.5 | 37.8–42.8 | 6.8–9.8 | 5.3–8.3 | 1.6–4.2 | — | 2.3 | |
15 Mar 2002 | Marktest | 35.2 | 43.7 | 8.1 | 6.0 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 8.5 | |
15 Mar 2002 | Lusófona | 40.9 | 43.6 | 5.7 | 7.1 | 2.8 | — | 2.7 | |
15 Mar 2002 | Eurosondagem | 39.3 | 41.4 | 6.9 | 5.6 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 2.1 | |
15 Mar 2002 | Eurequipa | 33.9 | 44.7 | 7.1 | 9.1 | 3.2 | 2.0 | 10.8 | |
15 Mar 2002 | Universidade Católica | 37.5 | 42.2 | 6.9 | 6.8 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 4.7 | |
14 Mar 2002 | INTERCAMPUS | 39.0 | 41.0 | 8.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | |
14 Mar 2002 | Aximage | 40.0 | 44.0 | 7.0 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | |
13 Mar 2002 | SIC/Visão | 36.2 | 41.0 | 6.6 | 5.2 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 4.8 | |
8 Mar 2002 | Marktest | 36.0 | 43.0 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | |
2 Mar 2002 | Eurosondagem | 35.0 | 38.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 14.0 | 3.0 | |
27 Feb 2002 | Universidade Católica | 35.6 | 43.5 | — | — | — | 20.9 | 7.9 | |
Feb 2002 | Marktest | 34.7 | 45.7 | 6.7 | 7.3 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 11.0 | |
Jan 2002 | Marktest | 33.8 | 41.8 | 9.6 | 8.1 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 8.0 | |
22 Dec 2001 | Marktest | 34.0 | 39.0 | 11.0 | 9.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | |
16 Dec 2001 | Local elections | 37.1 | 41.0 | 10.6 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 6.1 | 3.9 | |
Nov 2001 | Marktest | 35.4 | 33.7 | 10.6 | 11.6 | 2.9 | 5.8 | 1.7 | |
Oct 2001 | Marktest | 35.9 | 33.9 | 10.5 | 11.5 | 2.7 | 5.5 | 2.0 | |
26 Jan 2001 | Marktest | 37.0 | 33.0 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 | |
8 May 2000 | Universidade Católica [lower-alpha 2] | 40.9 | 32.5 | 6.7 | 8.1 | 3.0 | 8.8 | 8.4 | |
10 Oct 1999 | Leg. election | 44.1 115 | 32.3 81 | 9.0 17 | 8.3 15 | 2.4 2 | 3.9 0 | 11.9 | |
Parties | Votes | % | ± | MPs | MPs %/ votes % | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | 2002 | ± | % | ± | ||||||
Social Democratic | 2,200,765 | 40.21 | 7.9 | 81 | 105 | 24 | 45.65 | 10.4 | 1.14 | |
Socialist | 2,068,584 | 37.79 | 6.3 | 115 | 96 | 19 | 41.74 | 8.3 | 1.10 | |
People's | 477,350 | 8.72 | 0.4 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 6.09 | 0.4 | 0.70 | |
Democratic Unity Coalition [lower-alpha 3] | 379,870 | 6.94 | 2.1 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 5.22 | 2.2 | 0.75 | |
Left Bloc | 149,966 | 2.74 | 0.3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1.30 | 0.4 | 0.47 | |
Portuguese Workers' Communist | 36,193 | 0.66 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Earth | 15,540 | 0.28 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
People's Monarchist | 12,398 | 0.23 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Humanist | 11,472 | 0.21 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
National Renovator | 4,712 | 0.09 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | |
Workers Party of Socialist Unity | 4,316 | 0.08 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Left Bloc/People's Democratic Union [lower-alpha 4] | 3,911 | 0.07 | — | — | 0 | — | 0.00 | — | 0.0 | |
National Solidarity [lower-alpha 5] [27] | 0 | 0.00 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
Total valid | 5,365,881 | 98.03 | 0.0 | 230 | 230 | 0 | 100.00 | 0.0 | — | |
Blank ballots | 55,121 | 1.01 | 0.1 | |||||||
Invalid ballots | 52,653 | 0.96 | 0.0 | |||||||
Total | 5,473,655 | 100.00 | ||||||||
Registered voters/turnout | 8,902,713 | 61.48 | 0.4 | |||||||
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | Total S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PSD | PS | CDS–PP | CDU | BE | |||||||
Azores | 45.4 | 3 | 41.0 | 2 | 8.4 | - | 1.4 | - | 1.4 | - | 5 |
Aveiro | 46.4 | 8 | 33.5 | 5 | 12.9 | 2 | 2.6 | - | 1.8 | - | 15 |
Beja | 21.2 | - | 43.5 | 2 | 3.7 | - | 24.2 | 1 | 1.9 | - | 3 |
Braga | 44.4 | 9 | 37.4 | 8 | 9.3 | 1 | 4.4 | - | 1.7 | - | 18 |
Bragança | 53.2 | 3 | 30.0 | 1 | 10.9 | - | 1.9 | - | 0.9 | - | 4 |
Castelo Branco | 38.3 | 2 | 46.1 | 3 | 7.1 | - | 3.3 | - | 1.5 | - | 5 |
Coimbra | 41.0 | 5 | 41.3 | 5 | 6.7 | - | 5.1 | - | 2.4 | - | 10 |
Évora | 25.3 | 1 | 42.8 | 1 | 4.6 | - | 21.8 | 1 | 1.8 | - | 3 |
Faro | 37.7 | 4 | 40.5 | 4 | 8.3 | - | 6.3 | - | 2.8 | - | 8 |
Guarda | 48.5 | 2 | 34.7 | 2 | 9.6 | - | 2.2 | - | 1.2 | - | 4 |
Leiria | 50.8 | 6 | 29.5 | 3 | 9.8 | 1 | 4.1 | - | 2.2 | - | 10 |
Lisbon | 35.7 | 18 | 38.7 | 20 | 8.5 | 4 | 8.8 | 4 | 4.7 | 2 | 48 |
Madeira | 53.5 | 4 | 25.8 | 1 | 12.1 | - | 2.5 | - | 3.1 | - | 5 |
Portalegre | 30.6 | 1 | 45.2 | 2 | 6.4 | - | 12.4 | - | 1.6 | - | 3 |
Porto | 40.0 | 16 | 41.2 | 17 | 8.4 | 3 | 4.6 | 1 | 2.7 | 1 | 38 |
Santarém | 38.1 | 4 | 38.4 | 4 | 8.4 | 1 | 8.6 | 1 | 2.9 | - | 10 |
Setúbal | 24.7 | 5 | 39.3 | 7 | 6.9 | 1 | 20.5 | 4 | 4.6 | - | 17 |
Viana do Castelo | 45.5 | 3 | 35.3 | 3 | 10.3 | - | 3.5 | - | 1.8 | - | 6 |
Vila Real | 54.1 | 3 | 31.9 | 2 | 8.1 | - | 2.0 | - | 0.9 | - | 5 |
Viseu | 52.1 | 5 | 31.1 | 3 | 10.6 | 1 | 1.5 | - | 1.4 | - | 9 |
Europe | 36.9 | 1 | 42.1 | 1 | 5.0 | - | 4.8 | - | 1.1 | - | 2 |
Outside Europe | 66.3 | 2 | 21.5 | - | 3.4 | - | 0.9 | - | 0.4 | - | 2 |
Total | 40.2 | 105 | 37.8 | 96 | 8.7 | 14 | 6.9 | 12 | 2.7 | 3 | 230 |
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |
After the elections, PSD and CDS–PP formed a coalition government, the first since the Democratic Alliance (AD) in the early 1980's. [28] This government was marked by the fragile fiscal and economic situation of the country and the 2003 Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal. During this government, Portugal became a major ally in the War in Iraq, which divided public opinion. [29] In the 2004 European Parliament election in Portugal, the PSD/CDS–PP coalition Força Portugal suffered a big defeat by gathering just 33% of the votes, against the 44% of the Socialist Party. A few days later, José Manuel Durão Barroso announced he was resigning from the post of Prime Minister in order to become President of the European Commission. [30] Despite pleas for a snap legislative election from Opposition parties, President Jorge Sampaio decided to nominate the new PSD leader, Pedro Santana Lopes as Prime Minister. [31]
Santana Lopes government was marked with deep disagreements and disputes within his own party, the Social Democratic Party, which began to damage the government's actions. [32] One of these disputes was the resignation of Youth and Sports Minister, Henrique Chaves, which was a close ally of Santana. This resignation precipitated the fall of the government, with Chaves accusing Santana of not being "loyal and truthful". [33] Just five months after swearing in Santana Lopes as Prime Minister, President Jorge Sampaio gave a speech in which he accused the government of "contradictions and lack of coordination that contributed to its discredit", [34] and used his power of dissolution of Parliament and called a snap election, so far the only time till date such power was used in Portuguese democracy by a President. [35] [36] Santana Lopes disagreed with the President's decision but respected it and announced his resignation. [37] A new election was called, by the President, for 20 February 2005. [38]
Politics in Portugal operates as a unitary multi-party semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Portugal is the head of government, and the President of Portugal is the non-executive head of state with several significant political powers they exercise often. Executive power is exercised by the Government, whose leader is the prime minister. Legislative power is primarily vested in the Assembly of the Republic, although the government is also able to legislate on certain matters. The Judiciary of Portugal is independent of the executive and the legislature. The President exerts a sort of "moderating power", not easily classified into any of the traditional three branches of government.
The 2005 Portuguese legislative election took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 1999 Portuguese legislative election took place on 10 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 1995 Portuguese legislative election took place on 1 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 1991 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. There was a reduction of 20 seats compared with previous elections, due to the 1989 Constitutional revision.
The 1987 Portuguese legislative election took place on 19 July. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 1985 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 1980 Portuguese legislative election took place on 5 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The 2009 Portuguese legislative election was held on 27 September, to renew all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates, won the largest number of seats, but didn't repeat the overall majority they gained in 2005.
The 2011 Portuguese legislative election was held on 5 June, to elect all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. Pedro Passos Coelho led the centre-right Social Democratic Party to victory over the Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates. Despite a historically low turnout of less than 60% of registered voters, the right-wing won a clear mandate, winning nearly 130 MPs, more than 56% of the seats, and just over 50% of the vote. While the People's Party, continuing the trend they began in 2009, earned their best score since 1983, the Social Democrats exceeded the expected result in the opinion polls and won the same number of seats as they did in 2002, when the PSD was led by José Manuel Durão Barroso. Of the twenty districts of the country, Pedro Passos Coelho's party won seventeen, including Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Santarém and the Azores, that tend to favor the Socialist Party.
The 2020 Azorean regional election was held on 25 October 2020, to determine the composition of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. All 57 members of the assembly were up for election.
Álvaro Barreto was a Portuguese politician and engineer, and a member of the Social Democratic Party. From 1978 to 2005, he occupied various government ministry offices.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Portugal in January 2026. The elections will elect the successor to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is barred from running for a third term.
Lisbon is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Lisbon. The constituency currently elects 48 of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 1,915,287 registered electors.
Porto is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Porto. The constituency currently elects 40 of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 1,591,760 registered electors.
Braga is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Braga. The constituency currently elects 19 of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 780,164 registered electors.
Coimbra is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Coimbra. The constituency currently elects nine of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 371,769 registered electors.
Santarém is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Santarém. The constituency currently elects nine of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 377,261 registered electors.
Viseu is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Viseu. The constituency currently elects eight of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 335,659 registered electors.
Castelo Branco is one of the 22 multi-member constituencies of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. The constituency was established in 1976 when the Assembly of the Republic was established by the constitution following the restoration of democracy. It is conterminous with the district of Castelo Branco. The constituency currently elects four of the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic using the closed party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2024 legislative election it had 163,578 registered electors.