defeated in 1996. Candidates Thirteen citizens sought election officially, but only six gathered the 7,500 signatures required under the constitution to be a candidate in the poll: Official candidates Manuel Alegre, a Socialist Party politician who ran without the official backing of his party; Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister from 1985 to 1995, supported by the Social Democratic Party and by the People's Party; Francisco Louçã, coordinator of the political commission of the Left Bloc; Garcia Pereira, Secretary-General of the PCTP/MRPP; Mário Soares, President from 1986 to 1996, the official candidate of the Socialist Party; and Jerónimo de Sousa, Secretary-General of the Portuguese Communist Party, also supported by the Ecologist Party "The Greens". All the candidates except for Cavaco Silva are considered to be from the Portuguese political left. Unsuccessful candidacies The other potential candidates who, according to the Constitutional Court, did not gather enough signatures, were: Josué Rodrigues Gonçalo Pedro; Luís Filipe Guerra, leader of the Humanist Party; Teresa Lameiro; Manuela Magno, nuclear physicist; Carmelinda Pereira, leader of the Workers Party of Socialist Unity (POUS); Luís Botelho Ribeiro; and Diamantino da Silva; Campaign period Party slogans Candidates' debates Opinion polling Results Summary of the 22 January 2006 Portuguese presidential election results |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Candidates !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|Supporting parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan="2"|First round |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|Votes !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;"|% |- |style="width:10px;background-color:#FF9900;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Aníbal Cavaco Silva |style="text-align:left;"|Social Democratic Party, People's Party |style="text-align:right;"|2,773,431 |style="text-align:right;"|50.54 |- |style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#777777;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Manuel Alegre |style="text-align:left;"|Independent |style="text-align:right;"|1,138,297 |style="text-align:right;"|20.74 |- |style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#FF66FF;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Mário Soares |style="text-align:left;"|Socialist Party |style="text-align:right;"|785,355 |style="text-align:right;"|14.31 |- |style="width: 5px" style="background-color:red;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Jerónimo de Sousa |style="text-align:left;"|Portuguese Communist Party, Ecologist Party "The Greens" |style="text-align:right;"|474,083 |style="text-align:right;"|8.64 |- |style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#8B0000;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|Francisco Louçã |style="text-align:left;"|Left Bloc |style="text-align:right;"|292,198 |style="text-align:right;"|5.32 |- |style="width: 5px" style="background-color:#CC0000;text-align:center;"| |style="text-align:left;"|António Garcia Pereira |style="text-align:left;"|Portuguese Workers' Communist Party |style="text-align:right;"|23,983 |style="text-align:right;"|0.44 |- |colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total valid |width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,487,347 |width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00 |- |style="text-align:right;" colspan="3"|Blank ballots |width="65" style="text-align:right;"|59,636 |width="40" style="text-align:right;"|1.07 |- |style="text-align:right;" colspan="3" |Invalid ballots |width="65" style="text-align:right;"|43,149 |width="40" style="text-align:right;"|0.77 |- |colspan="3" style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total |width="65" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|5,590,132 |width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| |- |colspan=3|Registered voters/turnout ||9,085,339||61.53 |- |colspan=5 style="text-align:left;"|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições |} Maps See also President of Portugal Portugal Politics of Portugal References External links Portuguese Electoral Commission Official results site, Portuguese Justice Ministry NSD: European Election Database - Portugal publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990–2010 2006 elections in Portugal 2006 January 2006 events in Europe fr:Élections présidentielles portugaises#2006