At the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, an exhibition featuring videos, posters, newspaper covers, and other documents telling the story of the 1975 elections for the Constituent Assembly and the preceding period opens on Tuesday. This location served as the press and polling center during the 25-hour television broadcast of the 1975 election night.
“This was the press and scrutiny center,” explained Pedro Magalhães, the curator of the exhibition “Haverá Eleições. 1975,” during a guided tour.
The exhibit begins with an installation of ten screens on metal structures used at polling locations, displaying images from the era and statements from significant figures such as Salgueiro Maia and Mário Soares.
The exhibition is divided into six sections, tracing the political journey from the pre-April 25, 1974, restrictions on women’s voting to the regime’s propaganda and the political upheavals following the military coup that overthrew the dictatorship, events that threatened the elections organized by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA).
Pedro Magalhães explained to journalists the complexity of the election process, noting that no structure or organization in Portugal could have facilitated the elections without the Armed Forces.
Ballot boxes had to be ordered, as they were nonexistent due to the previous practice where individuals submitted already completed ballots. Magalhães paused to recount the repression and the fraudulent nature of previous elections, where members of the Portuguese Legion cast votes on behalf of deceased individuals.
No budget was allocated for voter registration, which was eventually carried out with funds from the PIDE/DGS, Magalhães noted, adding that the fundamental electoral system of that time remains today.
“This was an epic feat, to organize all this,” he remarked, pointing to documents that attest to the steps towards democracy.
Ballot papers were supplied by Sweden. “The Air Force and the Army distributed the ballots across the country,” Magalhães recalled.
Photographs, posters, videos, and newspaper covers with third editions sold out recount the story of the revolution and the journey to elect deputies to the Constituent Assembly, whose mission was to draft the Portuguese Republic’s Constitution, approved in 1976.
During that period, various informational materials were created to educate the largely illiterate population on how to vote, with “a great concern for impartiality” despite the political unrest, according to Pedro Magalhães.
The MFA also aimed to explain the elections to children through a comic strip included in the exhibition, which has free admission and is on display until October 31.
In the final section, where part of the election night can be viewed, voting tables and videos reveal the simplicity and ignorance of the population called to vote across the country.
In this chamber, the public is invited to write on a ballot what they wish for the next 50 years.
