Portugal chooses the president - the victory is subject to the current head of state

Portugal will be held in Portugal today. Over 9.6 million voters will have to determine which of the six candidates for the coming five years will become the owner of the Bethlehem Palace. If none of the applicants gains more than half of the vote, on February 13, the second round consists of, but all surveys predict the victory already in the first round to the current president to Conservator Anibal Kavak Silve.

Speaking on Friday in Lisbon at the final rally, Kavak Silva called on voters to come to the voting sites. He introduced himself to the guarantor of stability during the period experienced by Portugal of a severe protracted crisis. Now is the “not time for adventures,” the president said, who had been headed by the right social democratic party and for 10 years the former prime minister.

The main rival of the current head of state is the representative of the left wing of the ruling socialist party, the 74 -year -old poet Manuel Alegre. In an emotional performance at the last election rally in the "northern capital" of the Porto country, he sharply spoke out against the "dictatorship of the markets", which impose Portugal, which ended up among the problematic countries of the eurozone, what and how to do. It got from Alegra and the European Union, which "makes decisions outside the concluded agreements", and in fact - Germany, which forced Lisbon to take strict savings. “We are not a second -grade Europeans,” Alegre said.

According to the results of sociological research, the remaining four candidates should gain about 20 percent of the vote. 58-year-old doctor Fernanda Nobre, founder of the charity organization International Medical Assistance (AMI), 55-year-old candidate of the Communist Party Francisko Lopesh, former mayor of the northern town of Viana-Kashtelu claims the presidency, 65-year-old Muura defensor and 58-year-old deputy of the Madeira regional parliament, New Democracy, Jose Manuel. Coel.

The likely victory to Kavak Silva will raise the question about extraordinary parliamentary elections on the agenda. The ruling social party does not have an absolute majority in parliament. The Constitution forbids to simultaneously hold the presidential and parliamentary elections, but after taking office, the head of state will receive the right to dissolve the parliament. During the election campaign, Kavak Silva said that such a step is akin to the “atomic bomb”, that is, the extreme tool, which he did not intend to resort to. However, some analysts do not exclude early elections. Moreover, polls show the growth of the popularity of the Social Democratic Party and the fall of the rating of socialists.

The results of the first round of elections will be known on Monday night. The Constitution allows you to hold no more than two in a row at the highest state post. All the presidents who exhibited their candidates for a second term have still managed to achieve re -election.

Polling stations today should open at 8 a.m. local time (11:00 Moscow time) and close at 19:00 (22:00 Moscow time). The processing of the ballots will begin at 23:00 Moscow time, since the Autonomous Region of Portugal - the Azores are in another time zone, and there the elections will begin and end an hour later than in other areas of the country, ITAR -TASS reports.