Portugal opposition wins election after bailout

Portugal’s centre-right opposition Social Democrats (PSD) defeated the ruling Socialists in yesterday’s early election, preliminary results showed with 80 per cent of electoral districts counted.

Meanwhile outgoing Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates yesterday quit the leadership of the Socialist Party after it lost an early general election to the centre-right Social Democrats.

“This defeat is mine and I feel it is necessary to open a new political cycle that is able to prepare a consistent alternative,” he said in an address to party supporters in Lisbon.

“I want to give the Socialist Party the space to discuss its future and select a new leadership.”Portugal’s opposition PSD will be able to form a majority in Parliament with a smaller party to implement a €78-billion bailout programme, TV exit polls showed.

The PSD captured 40.6 per cent of the vote compared to 28.5 per cent for Prime Minister Jose Socrates’ Socialists, who have been in power since 2005, the results showed.

The conservative CDS-PP party, which has governed in the past with the PSD, came in third place with 10.9 per cent of the vote, giving Portugal’s two right-leaning parties just over half of the vote.

The abstention rate was 42.3 per cent, according to the early figure, even higher than the record 40.3 per cent in the last general election in September 2009.

The partial results were in line with three exit polls broadcast on state television RTP and private networks SIC and TVI which projected the PSD would capture between 102 and 121 seats in the 230-seat Parliament.

This would allow the PSD to govern with a majority if they team up with the CDS-PP, which captured between 12 and 28 seats.

PSD leader Pedro Passos Coelho campaigned on a promise to “go beyond” the demanding bailout conditions set by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in terms of privatisations and economic reforms.