2006 Portuguese presidential election
22 January 2006
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| Turnout | 61.53% ( 11.82pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 22 January 2006 to elect a successor to the incumbent President Jorge Sampaio, who was term-limited from running for a third consecutive term by the Constitution of Portugal. The result was a victory in the first round for Aníbal Cavaco Silva of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate, the former Prime Minister, won 50.54 percent of the vote in the first round, just over the majority required to avoid a runoff election.
It was the first time in which a right-wing candidate was elected President of the Republic since the 1974 Carnation Revolution. From 2006 until 2026, the PSD supported candidates won every presidential election in Portugal.
Voter turnout was 62 percent. Cavaco Silva was sworn in as President on 9 March 2006.