[ad_1]
With more than 90% of the parishes counted, the current president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, of the center right, appears with more than 60% of the votes, guaranteeing his re-election. In second place is the right-wing candidate Chega!, André Ventura, with 11.87%, followed by the socialist Ana Gomes, who ran independently, with 11.78%. The abstention rate was 62%, according to the local press.
Created less than two years ago, the radical acronym Chega! it won a seat in Parliament, is part of the government coalition in the autonomous region of the Azores and its result in the presidential elections represents the culminating achievement of its national escalation.
The historic activist of the center-left Socialist Party (PS), former MEP Ana Gomes, did not have the formal support of the acronym itself, led by Prime Minister António Costa, who announced his preference for Rebelo.
The president of the Republic of Portugal has a mainly ceremonial role, but can veto certain laws and enact states of emergency, a power that Rebelo de Sousa used frequently during the pandemic, following the leadership of parliament.
Previously, Rebelo de Sousa appealed to the Portuguese to vote, despite restrictive measures against Covid-19.
– To those who can and want to vote, overcome your fears – he declared, after having voted for Celorico de Basto, in Minho, North of Portugal. – Voting happens well throughout the country, with physical distance, respect for sanitary regulations and patience on the part of the Portuguese. People can vote without problems.
In addition to shops and restaurants, the government closed schools for 15 days, while a new record of cases and deaths was recorded on Saturday, increasing the total since the pandemic began to more than 10,000 deaths.
With more than 80 thousand new cases registered last week, Portugal ranks first in the world in the number of infected in relation to the population, only surpassed by the British enclave of Gibraltar, according to official data obtained by AFP.
