1958 Portuguese presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 8 June 1958, during the authoritarian Estado Novo regime led by Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar.

1958 Portuguese presidential election

8 June 1958
Turnout	77.3% 0.1 pp
Candidate Americo Thomaz Humberto Delgado Party UN Independent Popular vote 765,081 236,057 Percentage 76.4% 23.6%
President before election Craveiro Lopes UN Elected President Americo Thomaz UN

Incumbent President Francisco Craveiro Lopes had clashed with Salazar and did not seek another term, either as candidate of the regime or for the opposition, which deemed the incumbent president capable of winning the race. In Craveiro Lopes' place, the National Union, the sole legal political party, levied naval minister Américo Thomaz, a conservative.

The democratic opposition backed Air Force General Humberto Delgado, who ran as an independent in an attempt to challenge the regime. When asked if he would retain Salazar if elected, Delgado famously replied, "Obviously, I'll sack him."[1] Delgado knew that under Portugal's corporatist constitution, the president still had the right to dismiss the prime minister, which was effectively the only check on Salazar's power.

The official tally was 76.4 percent for Thomaz and 23.6 percent for Delgado. The regime's secret police force, PIDE, harassed and attacked Delgado voters and supporters, and there were many reports of widespread electoral fraud.[2] For example, Salazar refused to allow opposition representatives to observe the counting of ballots.[1]

Many neutral observers believe that Delgado would have won in a landslide had Salazar allowed an honest election. Nevertheless, the results came as a shock to Salazar. Leaving nothing to chance, in 1959 he had the Constitution amended to transfer the presidential election to the National Assembly, which was a pliant tool of the regime. As a result, the 1958 election would be the only presidential election under the Estado Novo in which an opposition candidate actually stayed in the race until election day. In previous years, when the regime's candidate was not unopposed, any opposition candidates were intimidated into withdrawing before the polls opened.

Universal suffrage was not reintroduced until after the Carnation Revolution and the return of democracy in 1974.

Official Results

Summary of the 8 June 1958 Portuguesepresidentialelection results

Candidates		Supporting parties	First round
			Votes	%
	Americo Thomaz	National Union	765,081	76.42
	Humberto Delgado	Independent	236,057	23.58
	Arlindo Vicente^[A]	Portuguese Communist Party	left the race
Total valid			1,001,138	100.00
Blank/Invalid ballots
Total			1,001,138	77.32
Registered voters			1,294,779
^A Candidate left the race in favour of Humberto Delgado.
Source: Fórum História, Elections in Portugal

Vote share 1st Round Americo Thomaz   76.42% Humberto Delgado   23.58% Blank/Invalid   0%

References

1. James Badcock (13 February 2015). "Did Portugal's dictator Salazar order killing of rival?". BBC News.

See also

• President of Portugal
• Portugal
• Politics of Portugal