1958 Portuguese presidential election

none December 2009 Portugal presidential 1951 Portuguese presidential election 1951 1965 Portuguese presidential election 1965 8 June 1958 77.35% ( 0.18pp) Fotografia oficial do Presidente da República Américo Tomás.jpg 130 110 150 0 8 Américo Tomás National Union (Portugal) 765,081 76.42% General Humberto Delgado (cropped).jpg 130 110 150 0 8 Humberto Delgado Independent politician cc0033 236,057 23.58% Mapa das eleições presidenciais portuguesas de 1958.svg Results by district, councils and overseas provinces President Francisco Craveiro Lopes National Union (Portugal) Américo Tomás National Union (Portugal) Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 8 June 1958, during the authoritarian Estado Novo regime led by Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar. 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 Tomás, 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."https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31427521 Did Portugal's dictator Salazar order killing of rival? James Badcock BBC News 13 February 2015 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 Tomás 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.http://www.portugal-info.net/history/second-republic.htm Portugal > History and Events > Date Table > Second Republic For example, Salazar refused to allow opposition representatives to observe the counting of ballots. 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 during the 48 years of the Second Portuguese Republic (in both of its incarnations as the Ditadura Nacional and the Estado Novo) in which an opposition candidate actually stayed in the race until election day. In previous years, whenever the opposition put forward any candidates at all, they 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 Américo Tomás National Union 765081 Humberto Delgado Independent 236057 #cc0033 340 1294779 Fórum História,Fórum História De Almeida,De Almeida Presidencyhttps://www.arquivo.museu.presidencia.pt/viewer?id=70537&FileID=379704&recordType=Description Eleição do Presidente da República pt Museum of the Presidency of the Republic 12 June 2023 Results by district DistrictTomásDelgadoVotes%Votes%  Aveiro40,08769.43%17,65130.57%  Beja14,54086.81%2,20913.19%  Braga48,81372.19%18,80927.81%  Bragança19,53475.93%6,19324.07%  Castelo Branco30,78393.13%2,2716.87%  Coimbra33,94471.35%13,62928.65%  Évora13,10177.22%3,86522.78%  Faro22,17986.69%3,40513.31%  Guarda29,56583.17%5,98316.83%  Leiria33,28476.14%10,43323.86%  Lisbon110,93971.90%43,35928.10%  Portalegre16,54281.27%3,81218.73%  Porto69,17466.10%35,47333.90%  Santarém37,64564.22%20,97435.78%  Setúbal12,97370.57%5,40929.43%  Viana do Castelo20,79773.91%7,34226.09%  Vila Real26,89985.62%4,51914.38%  Viseu46,69285.19%8,11714.81%  Angra do Heroísmo11,25599.72%320.28%  Funchal16,02485.59%2,69814.41%  Ponta Delgada13,79695.25%6884.75%  Angola22,29567.71%10,63032.29%  Cape Verde13,19197.67%3142.33%  Guinea1,62479.07%43020.93%  Macau1,507100.00%00.00%  Mozambique13,38561.29%8,45438.71%  Portuguese India16,77395.64%7654.36%  São Tomé and Príncipe5,249100.00%00.00%  Timor1,853100.00%00.00%Source: Presidencyhttps://www.arquivo.museu.presidencia.pt/viewer?id=70538&FileID=379545&recordType=Description Eleição do Presidente da República pt Museum of the Presidency of the Republic 12 June 2023 References Presidential Category:Presidential elections in Portugal Portugal