electionstracker

Portugal 1976 legislative election

What was the result of the 1976 legislative election in Portugal?

Socialist Party won 107 of 263 seats with 36.6% of the vote. 83.5% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Portugal
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Socialist Party won 107 of 263 seats with 36.6% of the vote; 83.5% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 8.1 points on 1975.

  • Socialist Party 107 −9 seats 36.6% −4.1 points
  • Social Democratic Party 73 −8 seats 25.6% −2.8 points
  • CDS – People's Party 42 +26 seats 16.8% +8.6 points
  • Portuguese Communist Party 40 +10 seats 15.1% +1.7 points
  • Popular Democratic Union 1 0 seats 1.8% +0.9 points
  • People's Socialist Front 0 0 seats 0.8% −0.4 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Portugal 1975 legislative election, party by party.

132 of 263 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 36.6%

    Share of the vote won by Socialist Party

    Socialist Party won 107 of 263 seats. A majority needs 132.

  2. +26 seats

    Seats gained by CDS – People's Party

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1975. Socialist Party lost 9 seats.

  3. 83.5%

    Voter turnout

    Down 8.1 points on 1975.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Socialist Party107−936.6−4.11,912,921
Social Democratic Party73−825.6−2.81,335,381
CDS – People's Party42+2616.8+8.6876,007
Portuguese Communist Party40+1015.1+1.7788,830
Popular Democratic Union101.8+0.991,690
People's Socialist Front000.8−0.442,162

± is the change against the Portugal 1975 legislative election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Socialist Party 1,912,921
  • Social Democratic Party 1,335,381
  • CDS – People's Party 876,007
  • Portuguese Communist Party 788,830
  • Popular Democratic Union 91,690
  • People's Socialist Front 42,162

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

83.5% of the 6,564,667 registered voters cast a ballot (5,483,461 ballots), down 8.1 points on 1975. 5,225,765 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Socialist Party36.6% of votes40.7% of seats
  • Social Democratic Party25.6% of votes27.8% of seats
  • CDS – People's Party16.8% of votes16.0% of seats
  • Portuguese Communist Party15.1% of votes15.2% of seats
  • Popular Democratic Union1.8% of votes0.4% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 3.5 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 4.0 by votes and 3.4 by seats; Socialist Party led Social Democratic Party by 11.1 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of