PORTUGAL: PORTUGAL'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN INTENSIFIES AS LISBON IS DISPLAY BOARD FOR POSTERS AND COMMUNIST PARTY STAGES MAJOR RALLY.

Record ID: 347626

  • Title: PORTUGAL: PORTUGAL'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN INTENSIFIES AS LISBON IS DISPLAY BOARD FOR POSTERS AND COMMUNIST PARTY STAGES MAJOR RALLY.
  • Date: 5th April 1976
  • Summary: 1. MVs Posters in Liston (7 shots) 0.48 2. MV Communist Party rally 0.54 3. GV Audience chants and raises fist 1.01 4. CU PAN Delegates on platform 1.10 5. GV PAN Chanting crowd 1.20 6. MV PAN Chanting and applauding platform party 1.26 7. MV PAN & ZOOM TO CU Cunhal speaking 1.39 Initials BB/0235 RS/DK/BB/0255 S
  • Embargoed: 20th April 1976 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LISBON, PORTUGAL
  • Country: Portugal
  • Reuters ID: LVA2AR1TIL0NB2841DGTNV2256IL
  • Story Text: Squads of political poster pasters roamed the centre of Lisbon in the early hours of Sunday morning (4 April) covering every available space with slogans and publicity pamphlets.

    The parties fighting Portugal's first free elections for 50 years had the right, from midnight on Sunday, to launch their poster campaign and within a few hours virtually every house, wall, theatre and church was covered in political messages.

    But although the poster competition between the various parties was good-natured, several people were injured in scattered incidents throughout Portugal on Saturday.

    A bomb exploded in the car park of a football stadium in Coimbra where 10,000 supporters of the conservative Centre Democrat Party were attending a rally.

    Earlier in the day a time bomb killed a Catholic priest and a 19-year-old girl in Northern Portugal.

    Fourteen political parties are taking part in the campaign which leads to the elections on April 25.

    Public opinion polls are banned during the campaign but polls published before the official campaign began on Sunday gave the Socialist the edge over the Popular Democrats, closely followed by the centre Democrats with the Communists in fourth place.

    The Communists launched their campaign in Lisbon on Sunday night with a large rally addressed by party leader Dr. Alvaro Cunhal.

    SYNOPSIS: The centre of Lisbon has become a billboard for posters of every political colour, as the official campaign opens for Portugal's first freely-chosen Parliament in 50 years. Hundreds of supporters of the 14 parties fighting the election got to work in the early hours of Sunday morning covering empty wells of houses, theatres and even churches with slogans and symbols. Posters are only to be paster on empty spaces. The campaign was largely good-natured but on Saturday there were several violent incidents throughout Portugal. A bomb exploded outside a stadium where the Centre Democrats were holding a rally and earlier in the day a priest and a 19 year old girl died in a time bomb explosion.

    The Portuguese Communist Party was the only major party to mark the official campaign launching with a large rally in Lisbon. But the Communists may have a difficult time at the polls on April the 25th. Disenchantment with two years of revolution is spreading in Portugal and many observers predict a trend to the right.

    The Communists have hailed Portugal's new constitution, which will commit Portugal to socialism and worker power for the next four years. They say it's the most progressive in Western Europe. But opining polls published before the campaign officially began put the communists fourth.

    The polls put the Socialists ahead of the Popular Democrats with the Centre Democrats third. But Communist leader Alvaro Cunhal has still time to rally support -- half those questioned were still undecided.
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