Using extensive audiovisual resources, some of them unpublished or rarely seen, the exhibition “There will be elections. 1975: the first free elections in Portugal” offers an immersive and sensory experience, showing the complexity and excitement of this historic period.

During these elections, at the request of the Ministry of Social Communication, the Electoral Information Centre was moved to the Gulbenkian Foundation, where a press room and a studio were set up, from which the electoral television broadcast was conducted, with connections to the RTP studios in Lumiar and Monte da Virgem.

The exhibition is organised into six thematic sections that follow the path of the conquest of the right to vote freely in Portugal.

 The first, ‘Elections before 25 April’, reveals how, throughout more than 150 years of electoral history in Portugal, the right to vote has always been heavily conditioned. This section revisits a past marked by exclusion and repression, especially during the Estado Novo regime (1933-1974), while also highlighting the struggle of those who aspired to a truly democratic system.

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The second section, ‘The promise of elections’, explains the genesis of the Armed Forces Movement’s programme and the prominent place it gave to the holding of free elections, no later than one year after the overthrow of the dictatorship.

The third section, ‘Realising what was promised’, reveals the enormous effort needed to organise these elections in a short period of time, from producing new legislation to creating the logistical conditions that would allow millions of Portuguese, many of them voting for the first time, to express their political will.

The next section explores the dilemmas, conflicts and decisions that almost postponed the most awaited moment of the revolution: giving the Portuguese people the ability to decide their future by voting.

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The fifth section, ‘The parties and the campaign’, shows how this period was one of intense political and social mobilisation, revisiting the key moments from the legalisation of the parties to the fervour of the campaign.

Finally, ‘The day of the vote’, the section that closes the exhibition, shows the main moments of 25 April 1975, from the exercise of the electoral act, to the counting of votes or the election night broadcast by RTP, recreating the atmosphere experienced at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 50 years ago. 

It was on this date that the first free elections were held in Portugal. For the first time, the adult population exercised their right to vote democratically. Around 92% of registered voters went to the polls – a turnout that has never been surpassed to this day. The vote counting centre that night was based at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, while the results were broadcast live on national television.

The exhibition features a documentary that captures this historic moment, revisiting the election through footage from that night and testimonies from those who experienced it. To produce the film, the 50th Anniversary Commission for the 25 April Revolution invited award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Cláudia Varejão and the production company TERRATREME, in collaboration with the curators of the exhibition from which the documentary takes its title. The project is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Democracy and Civil Society Programme.

The exhibition There Will Be Elections. 1975: the first free elections in Portugal is an initiative of the Comissão Comemorativa dos 50 anos do 25 de Abril, in partnership with the Portuguese Parliament, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and RTP.