LISBON - Portugal's opposition Socialists won their first outright majority in parliament since the country returned to democracy in 1974 in a snap weekend election as voters swung left for a new government and looked for answers to rising unemployment.
The party, led since September by pro-market former environment minister Jose Socrates, won 120 seats in the 230-seat assembly, interior ministry figures showed. Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes' centre-right Social Democrats, in power since 2002, won 72 seats, their lowest showing in over two decades. The Socialists won 45 percent of the vote in an election marked by higher-than-usual voter turnout compared to 29 percent for the incumbent Social Democrats (PSD). |