Portugal: Country votes, 11 candidates vie for the role of president

Lisbon (Portugal), 18 Jan. (LaPresse/AP) – Polling stations for the presidential elections in Portugal opened at 8 a.m. this morning and will close at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. in Italy). The large number of candidates, 11, makes it unlikely that any one of them will obtain more than 50% of the votes in the first round. This means that the two candidates with the most votes will face off in a runoff on 8 February. Nearly 11 million people are eligible to vote, and most of the results are expected late in the evening. The winner will replace President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has reached the limit of two five-year terms. According to recent polls, one of the favourites is André Ventura, leader of the far-right populist party Chega (Enough). The other main candidates come from the two parties that have alternated power in the country over the past 50 years: Luís Marques Mendes of the centre-right Social Democratic Party, currently in government, and António José Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party. All eyes are also on retired Rear Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who is running as an independent and has won public acclaim for overseeing the rapid distribution of Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.