After the Carnation Revolution, the National Salvation Junta dissolved all political offices previously existing in the Estado Novo (Law no.

2/74[3]), the two parliamentary chambers in the Estado Novo, and established a transitory constitution (Law no.

The election of the Constituent Assembly was carried out in Portugal on 25 April 1975, exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution and was the first free election in fifty years, the first in the new democratic regime created after the revolution.

To be elected, a candidate needed to reach a minimum of 126 votes.

The then interim President Henrique de Barros, from the Socialist Party, was easily elected: