Portugal's centre-right President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has won a second term, in an election marked by strict rules as the country battles a crippling third wave of Covid-19.
Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has won a second term. Photo: AFP
Polls by leading TV stations TVI, RTP and SIC gave 72-year-old Rebelo de Sousa, a former TV commentator known for his warm persona and habit of taking selfies with supporters, 56 to 62 percent of the vote, more than his 52 percent win in 2016.
Left-wing candidate Ana Gomes and far-right lawmaker Andre Ventura were vying for a distant second, with polls giving Gomes 13 to 17 percent of the vote and Ventura, whose Chega party garnered just 1.3 percent of the vote in a 2019 parliamentary election, 9 to 14 percent.
The Portugese president holds a largely ceremonial role, but can veto certain laws and decree states of emergency, a power Rebelo de Sousa deployed often during the pandemic, following the parliament's lead.
The Portuguese voted masked, socially distanced and using their own pens, as councils took extensive measures to prevent contagion during the voting process.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa in a socially distanced queue of voters at an election booth. Photo: AFP
Almost two thirds of Portuguese thought the election should have been postponed because of the pandemic, a poll last week by research institute ISC/ISCTE showed.
"Since the date of the elections wasn't changed, I decided to come early," said Cristina Queda, 58, who arrived at her polling station in Lisbon as soon as it opened at 8 am to "avoid groups and queues".
The country of 10 million people is reporting the world's highest seven-day rolling average of new Covid-19 cases and deaths per capita, according to Oxford University data tracker www.ourworldindata.org.
The number of Covid deaths broke records for the seventh day in a row yesterday at 275, with hospitalisations also at an all-time high and ambulances queuing for several hours at Lisbon hospitals.
Pollsters predict record numbers of abstentions, in part because 1.1 million voters from abroad were added to the electoral register for the first time - but also because hundreds of thousands of voters are themselves in quarantine.
Casting his vote at a Lisbon school, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said "everything was done for people to be able to exercise their democratic right to vote", despite the country being at a grave stage of the pandemic.
- Reuters