1986 Portuguese presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 26 January 1986, with a second round on 16 February.

This was closest presidential election ever held in Portugal and was won by the Socialist Mário Soares, who initially had no more than 8 percent in opinion polls.

The first round was easily won by Freitas do Amaral, supported by all the right-wing parties. Soares advanced to the second round by beating the other two left-wing candidates: the former Prime-Minister Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, the first woman to be a candidate for the Portuguese presidency, and Salgado Zenha (supported by outgoing president António Ramalho Eanes, founder of the short-lived Democratic Renewal Party, and by the Portuguese Communist Party, whose candidate, Ângelo Veloso, left the race some days before the poll). Both these candidates supported Soares in the second round.

In the first round, Soares did not achieve the majority of the votes in any district, as the left-wing strongholds in the south of Portugal voted for Zenha due to his support from the Communist Party.

As results for the second round were counted, the urban vote, traditionally more left-wing, overcame the early lead of Freitas do Amaral by fewer than 140,000 votes, and Soares was sworn in as President on 9 March 1986, the first civilian to hold the post (not counting caretakers) in 60 years.

For 40 years this would be the only time a direct Portuguese presidential election was decided in a runoff, until 2026.