2010 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election

2010 Social Democratic Party leadership election

26 March 2010
Turnout66.3% 7.2 pp
 
Candidate Pedro Passos Coelho Paulo Rangel José Pedro Aguiar-Branco
Popular vote 31,671 17,821 1,769
Percentage 61.2% 34.4% 3.4%

Leader before election

Manuela Ferreira Leite

Elected Leader

Pedro Passos Coelho

The 2010 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election was held on 26 March 2010. The leadership election was held after the defeat of the PSD in the 2009 general elections. The then PSD leader, Manuela Ferreira Leite, decided to not contest this leadership election and four candidates entered in the race: Pedro Passos Coelho, candidate also in 2008; Paulo Rangel; José Pedro Aguiar-Branco and Jorge Castanheira Barros. On election day, Passos Coelho won the leadership by a landslide, capturing more than 61% of the votes, while Rangel only polled 34%. The other two candidates had results below 4%.

Pedro Passos Coelho would lead the PSD to victory in the 2011 snap general elections and become Prime Minister.