Since 1974, the year of the Carnation Revolution, seventeen legislative elections were held in Portugal.
The parliament is usually elected to a four-year term, and currently there are 230 Members of the Parliament, elected in Party's lists in 22 constituencies, corresponding to the 18 continental districts, 2 autonomous regions, one constituency for the Portuguese living abroad in Europe and the last one for the Portuguese living abroad in the rest of the world.
Each constituency elects a number of MPs proportional to its registered voters number, ranging from the 48 MPs in Lisbon to the 2 in Portalegre.
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.[1]
The number of seats assigned to each district depends on the district magnitude.[2] 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.[3]
For the 2024 legislative elections, the MPs were distributed by districts as follows:[4]
| District | Number of MPs | Map |
|---|---|---|
| 48 | ||
| 40 | ||
| 19 | ||
| 16 | ||
| 10 | ||
| 9 | ||
| 8 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 3 | ||
| Portalegre, Europe and Outside Europe | 2 |
Parties are listed from left-wing to right-wing.
| Election | UDP | BE | MDP | PCP | PEV | L | PS | PAN | PRD | PSD | CDS | PPM | PSN | IL | CH | Turnout | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1976 | 1.7 | - | - | 14.4 | - | - | 34.9 | - | - | 24.4 | 16.0 | 0.5 | - | - | - | 8.1 | 83.5 | |||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1979 | 2.2 | - | 18.8 | - | - | 27.3 | - | - | 45.3 | - | - | - | 6.2 | 82.9 | ||||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1980 | 1.4 | - | 16.8 | - | - | 27.8 | - | - | 47.6 | - | - | - | 6.4 | 83.9 | ||||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1983 | 0.5 | - | 18.1 | - | 36.1 | - | - | 27.2 | 12.6 | 0.5 | - | - | - | 5.0 | 77.8 | |||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1985 | 1.3 | - | 15.5 | - | 20.8 | - | 17.9 | 29.9 | 10.0 | - | - | - | - | 4.6 | 74.2 | |||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1987 | 0.9 | - | 0.6 | 12.1 | - | 22.2 | - | 4.9 | 50.2 | 4.4 | 0.4 | - | - | - | 4.3 | 71.6 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1991 | 0.1 | - | - | 8.8 | - | 29.1 | - | 0.6 | 50.6 | 4.4 | 0.4 | 1.7 | - | - | 4.3 | 67.8 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1995 | 0.6 | - | - | 8.6 | - | 43.8 | - | - | 34.1 | 9.1 | - | 0.2 | - | - | 3.6 | 66.3 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 1999 | - | 2.4 | - | 9.0 | - | 44.1 | - | - | 32.3 | 8.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | - | - | 3.4 | 61.1 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2002 | - | 2.7 | - | 6.9 | - | 37.8 | - | - | 40.2 | 8.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | - | - | 3.5 | 61.5 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2005 | - | 6.4 | - | 7.5 | - | 45.0 | - | - | 28.8 | 7.2 | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 64.3 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2009 | - | 9.8 | - | 7.9 | - | 36.6 | - | - | 29.1 | 10.4 | 0.3 | - | - | - | 5.9 | 59.7 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2011 | - | 5.2 | - | 7.9 | - | 28.0 | 1.0 | - | 38.7 | 11.7 | 0.3 | - | - | - | 7.2 | 58.0 | ||||
| 2015 | - | 10.2 | - | 8.3 | 0.7 | 32.3 | 1.4 | - | 38.6 | 0.3 | - | - | - | 8.2 | 55.8 | ||||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2019 | - | 9.5 | - | 6.3 | 1.1 | 36.3 | 3.3 | - | 27.8 | 4.2 | 0.2 | - | 1.3 | 1.3 | 8.7 | 48.6 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2022 | - | 4.4 | - | 4.3 | 1.3 | 41.4 | 1.6 | - | 29.1 | 1.6 | 0.0 | - | 4.9 | 7.2 | 4.2 | 51.5 | ||||
| align=center style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | 2024 | - | 4.4 | - | 3.2 | 3.2 | 28.0 | 1.9 | - | 28.8 | - | 4.9 | 18.1 | 7.5 | 59.9 | ||||||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições | |||||||||||||||||||||