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Constituent Assembly of Portugal

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Constituent Assembly

Assembleia Constituinte
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
History
Established2 June 1975
Disbanded2 April 1976
Succeeded by1st Legislature
Leadership
President
Henrique de Barros, Socialist Party[1]
Vice Presidents
Structure
Seats250
Political groups
  PS (116)
  PPD (81)
  PCP (30)
  CDS (16)
  MDP/CDE (5)
  UDP (1)
  ADIM (1)
Elections
Party-list proportional representation
Last election
25 April 1975
Meeting place
São Bento Palace, Lisbon, Portugal

The Constituent Assembly (Portuguese: Assembleia Constituinte) was the Portuguese constituent assembly elected on 25 April 1975, after the Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974), for the purpose of adopting a constitution for the Third Portuguese Republic, the Constitution of 1976.

Background

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After the Carnation Revolution, the National Salvation Junta dissolved all political offices previously existing in the Estado Novo (Law no. 1/74[2]). On 14 May 1974, the President of the National Salvation Junta, António de Spínola, abolished the National Assembly and the Corporative Chamber (Law no. 2/74[3]), the two parliamentary chambers in the Estado Novo, and established a transitory constitution (Law no. 3/74[3]) to be used until the new constitution was approved.

Election

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The election of the Constituent Assembly was carried out in Portugal on 25 April 1975, exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution and was the first free election in fifty years, the first in the new democratic regime created after the revolution.

The election was won by the Socialist Party, with the Democratic Party being the second most voted party. The parliament had a large majority of parties defending socialist or democratic socialist ideas and the Constitution, approved on 2 April 1976, reflected such influence.

Party Constituent Assembly
Votes % Seats
PS 2,162,972 37.87 116
PPD 1,507,282 26.39 81
PCP 711,935 12.46 30
CDS 434,879 7.61 16
MDP/CDE 236,318 4.14 5
UDP 44,877 0.79 1
ADIM[a] 1,622 0.03 1
Others/blanks/invalids 611,944 10.71 0
Total 5,711,829 100.00 250

Composition

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Party Parliamentary group leader Elected Dissolution
Seats % Seats %
PS António Lopes Cardoso (Beja) 116 46.4 116 46.4
PPD Carlos Mota Pinto (Coimbra) (1975)
António Barbosa de Melo (Coimbra) (1975–1976)
81 32.4 64 25.6
PCP Octávio Pato (Lisbon) 30 12.0 30 12.0
CDS Victor Sá Machado [pt] (Lisbon) 16 6.4 16 6.4
MDP/CDE José Tengarrinha [pt] (Lisbon) 5 2.0 5 2.0
UDP João Pulido Valente (Lisbon) 1 0.4 1 0.4
ADIM Diamantino de Oliveira Ferreira (Macau) 1 0.4 1 0.4
Independent Various PPD deputies 0 0.0 17 6.8
 Total 250 100.0 250 100.0

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ "Assembleia Contituinte - Cronologia" (in Portuguese). Assembly of the Republic. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  2. ^ "Diário do Governo" (PDF). Diário do Governo. 1st (in Portuguese) (97). 25 April 1974. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Diário do Governo" (PDF). Diário do Governo. 1st (in Portuguese) (112). 14 May 1974. Retrieved 19 October 2012.