1933 Portuguese constitutional referendum

19 March 1933 Do you approve the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic? Portugal 1,292,864 6,190 660 1,330,258 From: Nohlen & Stöver A constitutional referendum was held in Portugal on 19 March 1933.Dieter Nohlen Philip Stöver 2010 Elections in Europe: A data handbook 1542 978-3-8329-5609-7 A draft of the new constitution had been published one year before and the public was invited to state any objections in the press. These objections tended to stay in the realm of generalities and there was very little open opposition.Kay 1970 49 According to a dispatch from the British Embassy in Lisbon, prior to the referendum: "Generally speaking, this novel constitution is receiving the marked approval which it deserves. It has a certain Fascist quality in its theory of 'corporations', which is a reversion to medieval from the 18th-century doctrines. But this quality, unsuited to our Anglo-Saxon tradition, is not out of place in a country which has hitherto founded its democracy on a French philosophy and found it unsuited to the national temperament." The British Embassy also pointed out that Portugal's illiteracy made elections difficult and illusory.*British Embassy in Lisbon despatch on draft constitution http://www.cphrc.org/index.php/documents/docnesta/203-1932-07-09-british-embassy-in-lisbon-despatch-on-draft-constitution Contemporary Portuguese History Online The Contemporary Portuguese History Research Centre 26 September 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20120629142329/http://www.cphrc.org/index.php/documents/docnesta/203-1932-07-09-british-embassy-in-lisbon-despatch-on-draft-constitution 29 June 2012 dead The new constitution was approved by 99.5% of voters, with abstentions counted as "yes" votes. It institutionalised the Estado Novo one party state led by António de Oliveira Salazar, and provided for a directly elected President and National Assembly with a four-year term.Nohlen & Stöver, pp. 1535, 1551 There have been conflicting reports of the results of the referendum. The Diário do Governo of 11 April 1933 reported 1,292,864 Yes; 6,090 No; 660 spoiled; and 30,538 abstentions. Michael Derrick in 1938Derrick Michael Stove R.J. The Portugal of Salazar 1938 117 https://archive.org/details/portugalofsalaza011716mbp/page/n120 Campion Books New York Michael Derrick and Colonel Clement Egerton in 1943 provided the same numbers,Egerton F. Clement C. Salazar, Rebuilder of Portugal 1943 194 Hodder & Stoughton London which also appear in Elections in Europe: A data handbook by Nohlen and Stöver. However, Peter Fryer and Patricia McGowan Pinheiro stated that official figures were 580,376 Yes; 5,406 No; and 11,528 abstentions.Freyer Peter McGowan Pinheiro Patricia Oldest Ally: a Portrait of Salazar's Portugal 1961 Dennis Dobson London 116 1st Hugh Kay gave in 1970 719,364 Yes; 5,955 No; and 488,840 abstentions, in a registered electorate of 1,214,159, in line with the results published in the Diário de Notícias of 20 March 1933.Diário de Notícias March 20, 1933 O Plebiscito Nacional http://150anos.dn.pt/files/2014/08/Imagem-1933-1.jpg 27 September 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20140907220521/http://150anos.dn.pt/files/2014/08/Imagem-1933-1.jpg 7 September 2014 dead Fryer and McGowan Pinheiro stated that the Constitution was railroaded through not letting more than a handful of people vote "no", but they did not explain how the potential "no" voters were restrained.Kay 1970 49 What is quite clear is that abstention numbers were high.Kay 1970 49 Hugh Kay pointed out that abstention might have been because voters were presented with a package deal to which they had to say "yes" or "no" with no opportunity to accept one clause and reject the other. Kay 1970 49 In this referendum, women were allowed to vote for the first time in Portugal. The new constitution also established women's suffrage in future elections. However, secondary education was a requirement for women to vote, while men needed only to be able to read and write.Adão Áurea Remédios Maria José The educational narrativity in the first period of Oliveira Salazar's government. Women's voices in the National Assembly (1935–1945) History of Education History of Education Society 23 May 2006 34 5 547–559 10.1080/00467600500221315 144480521 10437/1428 free Sources Kay Hugh Salazar and Modern Portugal 1970 Hawthorn Books New York 73-115919 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL: Minutes of the general assembly for the tabulation of the results of the National Plebiscite https://dre.pt/application/dir/pdfgratis/1933/04/08300.pdf Díário Do Governo 649 1 83 Government of Portugal 27 September 2015 April 11, 1933 References External links 1933 Political Constitution of the Portuguese Republic http://www.cphrc.org/index.php/documents/docnesta/167-1933-02-22-political-constitution-of-the-portuguese-republic-part-1 Contemporary Portuguese History Online The Contemporary Portuguese History Research Centre 26 September 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20180927181234/http://www.cphrc.org/index.php/documents/docnesta/167-1933-02-22-political-constitution-of-the-portuguese-republic-part-1 27 September 2018 dead Category:Referendums in Portugal Portugal Constitutional Category:Constitutional referendums Portugal