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The ballot that will be in the polls on January 24, the day of the presidential elections, will even bear the name of Eduardo Baptista, the military man who delivered his presidential candidacy to the Constitutional Court on time but only with six signatures considered valid (and require 7,500). In response to the Observer, the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) confirms that the law is clear in this regard: the drawing of the lottery does not imply the admission of applications. That is, the draw is made with the applications that are on the table, even if one is rejected.
Therefore, Eduardo Baptista will lead the ballot and, on election day, voters will be informed, through a notice posted in all polling stations, that the application in question is not valid. “The votes in these candidacies are considered null,” reports the AMI, recalling that this situation is not “unprecedented.” This is because the PCP, three times since 1976, chose not to carry its candidacies to the end in favor of another candidate, which did not prevent the name from appearing on the ballot on voting day. “It is always like this,” confirms a source from the Constitutional Court to the Observer.
When questioned by the Observer, a source from the Ministry of the Interior, he referred to the decree-law of 1976 that regulates the election of the President of the Republic and expressly states, in its article 21, that “the draw does not imply the admission of candidacies, and does not have no effect with regard to applications […] it will definitely be rejected ”. That is, candidacies that have not yet been admitted can be on the ballot, and voters will be reminded of this information on Election Day.
In addition to the decree-law on the election of the President of the Republic, the calendar of the National Electoral Commission that regulates all the steps to be taken in the context of the preparation of the presidential elections of 2021 in terms of the order of events is also clear. :
Until Dec. 24 the candidates had to present their candidacies to the Constitutional Court and eight personalities participated: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Ana Gomes, Marisa Matias, João Ferreira, André Ventura, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, Vitorino Silva and Eduardo Baptista;
December the 28th, the President of the Constitutional Court had to draw the serial number that will be assigned to the candidacies and place it by notice on the door of the TC. The draw dictated the following order: Eduardo Baptista, Marisa Matias, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, André Ventura, Vitorino Silva, João Ferreira, Ana Gomes. “The printing of the ballots for the next presidential elections began right after the lottery of candidates,” says the MAI;
Only after 28 (“As of the 28th”) is that the TC must proceed with the “verification of applications”. He did it that very day.
Then, between December 28 and January 4, the Court must rule on the irregularities detected, thing he did on 28, and notify the representatives of the requests considered irregular – that they have, from the day of their notification, two days to correct irregularities. That is, they have to do it until this Wednesday the 30th.
What irregularities were detected?
According to the TC agreement of December 28, irregularities were detected in the candidacies of Eduardo Baptista, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves and André Ventura. But for different reasons. The remaining nominations were considered valid and were admitted by the Ratton Palace judges.
No case of André Ventura, the only defect found was the fact that the candidate “does not contain an indication of his profession.” Regarding Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, leader of the Liberal Initiative, the TC points out the lack of the number of the mandatory identification document and the lack of registration certificates in various firms. Only 5,961 subscriptions (out of a required minimum of 7,500) had their certificates attached. What if Eduardo Baptista, the TC mentions several absences in the process, the most serious of which is the fact that only the “regularly instructed” signatures of six voting citizens were included (the candidate only delivered 11).
TC publishes presidential bulletin of candidate who only delivered 11 signatures
“The file does not include: the complete number of the identification document; the negative guardianship registration certificate or other sufficient proof that you enjoy all civil and political rights; the certificate of criminal record; the full number of the agent’s identity document, as well as his address in Lisbon for notification purposes; the number of legally required statements of proposition, since only the statements of proposition of 6 voting citizens are regularly instructed ”, reads the judgment of the TC on the candidacy of the military.
For the Observer, Eduardo Batista had already said that, although his candidacy was not admitted due to the lack of 7,500 signatures required by law, he will not submit more than the 11 proposals already submitted. “I want to be a candidate and go to the next stage with only eleven proposals”, he told the Observer on Monday. That is, the candidates have two days (until this Wednesday) to correct the flaws and everything indicates that Eduardo Batista will not do so, thus ceasing to be a candidate for Belém when his name and photo are already printed on the ballot. .
André Ventura and Tiago Mayan Gonçalves will correct the aforementioned fouls. Speaking to Rádio Observador, the campaign advisor of the candidate supported by the Liberal Initiative said that “everything is a matter of staples”, which will “be resolved during tomorrow.” The application, therefore, is not in doubt.
After all, this is not the first time a candidate has appeared in the bulletin without going to vote. It happened three times with PCP-supported candidates who resigned up to 72 hours before the elections (as required by law), but for political reasons, not bureaucratic ones. The first was Carlos Brito, in 1980, who surrendered in favor of Ramalho Eanes; it happened again in 1996, when Jerónimo de Sousa went in favor of Jorge Sampaio (in the dispute against Cavaco Silva); and it had already happened before in 1986 when Ângelo Veloso ended up without going to the vote to favor Salgado Zenha, a former PS leader who had broken with Mário Soares. Eduardo Batista thus became the first candidate that he was no longer before.
What’s next now? Once the candidates have corrected (or not) the irregularities detected, the TC has until January 4 to decide on the admission of the applications. The deadline for appeal requests follows, which can be extended until the 11th; but if there are no resources the final publication of the applications effectively admitted can be made from January 2 (until the 11th). On the 11th, the official period of the electoral campaign begins, and before that there will be debates and face to face on television and radio.
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