The 2021 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election was held on 27 November. If no candidate achieved more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a second round would be held between the two most voted candidates in the first round on 1 December, however, as only two candidates will be on the ballot, a second round will not be necessary. The original date for the first round was 4 December, but the party decided to advance the date by a week. Nearly 47,000 party members, out of more than 85,000 active members, were registered to vote.
One issue identified during the campaign was the rise of the far-right Chega!. Though neither candidate said they would invite the party into government, Rio signalled he would be open to negotiating with them on a case-by-case basis, while Rangel ruled this out, saying he would only negotiate with CDS â People's Party and Liberal Initiative.
Rui Rio defeated Paulo Rangel by a 52.4% to 47.6% margin and was reelected for a 3rd term as party leader. He led the party into the 2022 snap general elections, which he lost, losing 2 seats in the Assembly of the Republic and that resulted in an absolute majority to the Socialist Party.
The following table shows a breakdown of the results of the election by party federation, which are mostly equal to the electoral circles.