10th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic

10th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic
← 9th Legislature 11th Legislature →
Overview
Legislative body	Assembly of the Republic
Meeting place	Palace of Saint Benedict
Term	10 March 2005 (2005-03-10) – 14 October 2009 (2009-10-14)
Election	20 February 2005
Government	XVII Constitutional Government
Website	parlamento.pt
Deputies
Members	230
President	Jaime Gama (PS)
First Vice-President	Manuel Alegre (PS)
Second Vice-President	Guilherme Silva (PPD/PSD)
Third Vice-President	António Filipe (PCP)
Fourth Vice-President	Telmo Correia (CDS–PP) (2005–2007) Nuno Melo (CDS–PP) (2007–2009) Teresa Caeiro (CDS–PP) (2009)

The 10th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: X Legislatura da Terceira República Portuguesa) ran from 10 March 2005 to 14 October 2009. The composition of the Assembly of the Republic, the legislative body of Portugal, was determined by the results of the 2005 legislative election, held on 20 February 2005. The 10th legislature was the longest in current Portuguese democracy, lasting 4 years and 218 days.

Election

The 11th Portuguese legislative election was held on 20 February 2005. In the election, the Socialist Party (PS) won its first absolute majority.

Party		Assembly of the Republic
		Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PS	2,588,312	45.03	121	+25
	PPD/PSD	1,653,425	28.77	75	–30
	CDU	433,369	7.54	14	+2
	CDS–PP	416,415	7.25	12	–2
	BE	364,971	6.35	8	+5
	Other/blank/invalid	291,179	5.07	0	±0
Total		5,747,834	100.00	230	±0

Composition (2005–2009)

Party		Parliamentary group leader	Elected		Dissolution
			Seats	%	Seats	%
	PS	Alberto Martins (Porto)	121	52.6	121	52.6
	PPD/PSD	Luís Marques Guedes (Porto) (2005–2007) Pedro Santana Lopes (Lisbon) (2007–2008) Paulo Rangel (Porto) (2008–2009) António Montalvão Machado (Porto) (2009)	75	32.6	75	32.6
	PCP	Bernardino Soares (Lisbon)	12	5.2	11	4.8
	CDS–PP	Nuno Melo (Braga) (2005–2007) Diogo Feio (Porto) (2007–2009)	12	5.2	11	4.8
	BE	Luís Fazenda (Lisbon)	8	3.5	8	3.5
	PEV	Heloísa Apolónia (Setúbal)	2	0.9	2	0.9
	Independent	Luísa Mesquita (Santarém) José Paulo de Carvalho (Porto)	0	0.0	2	0.9
Total			230	100.0	230	100.0

Changes

• Luísa Mesquita, Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) → Independent: Expelled from the PCP after the party's central committee removed their confidence in her due to a refusal to leave her seat at the request of the party.

• José Paulo Carvalho, CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) → Independent: Left CDS–PP citing lack of strategy and loss of values and ideas from the party.

Election for President of the Assembly of the Republic

To be elected, a candidate needs to reach a minimum of 116 votes. Jaime Gama, from the Socialist Party, was easily elected:

Election of the President of the Assembly of the Republic
Ballot →		16 March 2005
Required majority →		116 out of 230
	Jaime Gama (PS)	197 / 230	Y
	Blank ballots	32 / 230
	Invalid ballots	0 / 230
	Absentees	1 / 230
Sources: