Portugal's center-right ruling coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho won Sunday's general election but fell short of an absolute majority in the parliament.

According to the final results of the election published by Portuguese Lusa News Agency early Monday, the ruling coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Conservative Popular Party (CDS-PP) gathered 38.55 percent of votes while the main opposition Socialist Party got 32.38 percent.

The ruling coalition and the Socialist Party have won 104 and 85 seats respectively in the 230-seat parliament and the rest seats go to the small parties including the Portuguese Communist Party and the Left Bloc.

The ruling coalition has failed to gain a parliament majority with 116 seats to form a government which is required under Portugal's Constitution.

Passos Coelho told a press conference at a hotel in Lisbon after the election that he is ready to form a new government.

Secretary-General of the Socialist Party Antonio Costa conceded his party's failure in the election and he will take the responsibility but will not resign.

A total of 16 political parties or coalition participated in the general election on Sunday along with some 9.6 million eligible voters. The turnout is 56.93 percent, slightly lower than the 58.03 percent in the previous election.

Analysts say that the election victory of the ruling coalition is due to the slow economic recovery, the dropping unemployment, the Portuguese recognition of the necessity of the harsh austerity and the bad management of the Socialist Party over the economy when they were in power before May of 2011.

The Portuguese government has been implementing harsh austerity measures under a 78-billion-euro bailout program it signed with the troika of international lenders -- the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in May 2011 and the country succeeded in a clean exit from the bailout three years later.

The country's economy has seen a slow recovery since 2014 with 1.5 percent growth in the first half of this year and the unemployment rate has dropped from a record 17.7 percent in 2013 to 12.3 percent last July.

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