About 10.8 million Portuguese go to the polls this Sunday (30) to vote in the elections that will define the composition of the next Assembly of the Republic, whose majority is essential to guarantee the formation of the next government of the country.
The parliamentary dispute takes place a year ahead of schedule, after Prime Minister António Costa, of the Socialist Party, failed to approve his 2022 budget. approach in research.
The polls opened at 8:00 am local time (5:00 am Brasília time) and will close at 7:00 pm (4:00 pm). Among the 10.8 million voters, more than one and a half million live abroad.
On the streets of the capital Lisbon, notices on the walls urged voters to wear masks, maintain social distance and bring their own pen to the polls. Some people wore gloves as extra protection.
The Portuguese government has allowed people infected with Covid-19 to leave isolation to vote in person, recommending that they do so at the last minute before the polls close. A “completely safe” scenario for the elections was guaranteed.
It is estimated that more than a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million inhabitants are isolated because of Covid-19. As in many European countries, infections have increased lately due to the Ômicron variant, although vaccination has kept levels of deaths and hospitalizations lower than in previous waves.
split scenario
The votes will elect the 230 members of the next Assembly of the Republic. A total of 21 parties, nine of them currently with seats in Parliament in the last legislature, have candidates on the ballot.
However, only two have real chances of leading the next Portuguese government.
The election is open as the centre-left Socialists have lost much of their lead in opinion polls to the main opposition party, the centre-right Social Democratic Party, and neither is likely to gain a stable majority. .
The vote, called in November after parliament rejected the Socialist minority government’s draft budget, is expected to worsen political volatility and produce a short-lived government unless one of the main parties manages to form a working alliance.
Researches
The Socialists in the Portuguese government lost more votes from their leadership to the Social Democrat, according to two opinion polls released on Friday (28), two days before Sunday’s snap election.
The center-left party of premier Antonio Costa has dropped to 35% support from 38% a month ago, according to an ISCTE-ICS poll for the TV channel SIC and the newspaper Expresso, while the PSD rose from 31% to 33%.
The difference between the two is less than the poll’s 3.1% margin of error, meaning they are in a technical tie.
A different poll earlier this week showed the PSD led by a narrow margin.
It leaves each of them far from a parliamentary majority, which under the proportional representation system amounts to between 42% and 45% of the vote.
Another poll, carried out by the company Catolica for the TV channel RTP, Antena 1 radio and newspaper Publico, showed the Socialist Party with 36%, down from 37% a week ago. The PSD remained stable at 33%.
In October, Costa’s two former allies — the Communists and the Left Bloc — backed right-wing parties to reject the minority government’s draft budget, triggering the January election.
In the ISCTE-ICS poll, the far-right Chega party, the pro-business Liberal Initiative, and the communist-green alliance CDU each saw support of 6% each, with any one of which could become the third-largest force in parliament. .
The poll also registered 5% for the Left Bloc, 2% for the PAN (People-Animals-Nature) party, while the right-wing CDS-PP and the Free ecosocialist were at 1% each.
In the Catholic poll, the Liberal Initiative, Chega and the Bloco de Esquerda would each gain 6%, and the CDU 5%. CDS-PP, Livre and PAN had 2% each.
ISCTE-ICE interviewed 1,003 people between January 18 and 24, while Catolica interviewed 2,192 people between January 19 and 26, with a margin of error of 2.1%.
*With information from Reuters
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
