The elections resulted from the resignation of former Prime Minister António Costa, who was accused of crimes of corruption and malfeasance. After the resignation of António Costa, the elections were scheduled, and the Portuguese had to decide who would govern parliament on 10 March 2024.


Election results

In what was one of the longest election nights since 2001, the results surprised the Portuguese. The Partido Socialista (PS) lost its absolute majority, against the Aliança Democrática (AD), which did not achieve an absolute majority as well. On the other hand, the Chega party reinforced its position as a political force, having quadrupled the number of deputies in the Assembly of the Republic.

After counting the votes, in mainland Portugal and on the islands, it was quickly understood what the will of the Portuguese people was. Of the more than six million Portuguese who voted, the desire is to form a government between the PS, AD and Chega, which reached the one million vote mark and won the elections in the Algarve constituency.

The emigrants' votes have not yet been counted, but the vote count in Portuguese territory foresees, for now, the inclusion, on the right wing, of 76 deputies from AD, 48 deputies from Chega and 8 deputies from the Iniciativa Liberal (IL). With the coalition between PSD and CDS, AD gained 5 more deputies in the Assembly, when compared to the 2022 elections. IL managed to maintain the number of deputies, despite having increased the number of voters, having reached 5,08% of the votes, in 2024, against 4.98% in 2022.

On the left, the results were different from the 2022 records. PS lost its absolute majority, going from 117 deputies to 77 elected candidates. Bloco de Esquerda (BE) increased in number of votes, despite having maintained the number of elected deputies. The Coligação Democrática Unitária (CDU), lost elected deputies, including the deputy from the Beja constituency. The CDU, in Beja, lost a deputy, a place that was assigned to Chega's candidate in that district. Still on the left, the biggest growth was from Livre, which managed to grow and elect four deputies. Pessoas-Animais-Natureza (PAN), elected one candidate and Inês Sousa Real will remain in parliament.

The case of Chega

Polls and political analyses expected Chega to remain the third political force, what was not expected was that the party would manage to win in one of the constituencies.

In the district of Faro, Chega is the party with the most votes, with 4,000 more votes than PS. Despite being the winning party in the Algarve, Chega did not win in all municipalities in the southernmost region of the country.

Of the 16 municipalities in the Algarve, Chega won in Portimão, Lagoa, Silves, Loulé, Albufeira, and Olhão. The winning municipalities are where the largest focus of tourism is located, but also where there are the most problems with drought.

The surprise of the night

Despite the increase in the number of Chega deputies in parliament and the party's victory in the Algarve constituency, the biggest surprise of the night fell on the Alternativa Democrática Nacional (ADN) party. In the 2022 elections, the party led by Bruno Fialho obtained around 10,000 votes, however, in the 2024 elections, the ADN reached the 100,000 vote mark, almost electing a deputy.

The increase in votes has been explained by the confusion of voters, who confused the acronym of the AD with the ADN on the ballot paper. It should be noted that if this is indeed true, the AD could have gained three more deputies with the votes that were attributed to the ADN.

The government

Although some facts are already evident, four seats remain to be occupied in Parliament at the time of going to press, two from the European constituency and two from the non-European constituency.

For now, the PS is the party with the most deputies, followed by the AD, which has just one less deputy than the PS. The emigrants' results will arrive in Portugal between 18 and 20 March.

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos