Third round without majority between Aguiar-Branco and Assis. Parliament has new vote at noon

The third round of voting for the election of the President of the Assembly of the Republic ended, once again, without a majority. In a new round, which placed the two candidates with the most votes in the second vote face to face, Francisco Assis once again collected 90 votes, while Aguiar-Branco once again received 88 votes.

In this new vote, there were 50 more white votes than in the previous vote – a number of votes similar to that obtained by Chega’s candidate, Manuela Tender, in the last round.

With this new impasse, PCP deputy António Filipe, who is temporarily directing the work in parliament, announced that Francisco Assis and Aguiar-Branco were not elected and that work will continue this Wednesday, with the plenary returning to meet at 12pm, with applications to be announced by 11am.

“Despite my unusual stay in office, I will not spend the night at the official residence”, commented, ironically, António Filipe.

In the first vote, which took place during the afternoon in Parliament, Aguiar-Branco, who was the only candidate, had 89 votes in favor, when 116 favorable deputies were needed for his election as second figure of State.

Chega’s president, André Ventura, had announced on Monday that the party would support candidate Aguiar-Branco “following the information” that had been transmitted to him by the PSD that the social democrats would also approve their candidates for ” vice” and secretaries of the Board.

In the 16th legislature, PSD and PS each have 78 deputies, Chega 50 parliamentarians, IL eight, BE five and PCP and Livre four each. The PAN maintains a single deputy and the CDS-PP returned to parliament with two deputies.

In other words, PSD, CDS-PP and Chega have a total of 130 parliamentarians, which should be more than enough for the election, which is, however, carried out by secret vote.

Chega calls for “talk” between Montenegro and Ventura

Speaking to RTP, while the votes were being counted, Chega’s parliamentary leader had already warned that it would be “difficult” to resolve the issue this Tuesday, indicating that tomorrow [quarta-feira] “It’s more likely to be resolved.”

Asked about André Ventura’s nomination to vote in favor of Aguiar-Branco’s candidacy, Pedro Pinto pointed out that for this vote there was no combination and that everything can be resolved between PSD and Chega with a “conversation”.

“This was resolved very clearly. A conversation between Luís Montenegro and André Ventura”, he stated, indicating that the PSD leader does not want to talk to either the Chega leader or the PS leader and that now “there are only two paths”.

“Montenegro cannot ask for Chega’s votes without a conversation. It’s the only thing we ask for,” he stated, indicating that “a phone call was all it took to resolve the situation.”

At the same time, but on SIC Notícias, another Chega deputy, Rui Paulo Sousa, explained that a PSD representative spoke to Chega’s parliamentary leader to say that they were available to approve the name Chega nominated for vice-president of Parliament , which the PSD understood as an understanding for the election of Aguiar-Branco.

Pedro Frazão, on CNN, said that there was a phone call from Miranda Sarmento to Pedro Pinto, the two parliamentary leaders of PSD and Chega still in office. “He called and actually made an agreement, he promised to make our vice viable as long as the president of the Assembly of the Republic was made viable,” he said.

President elected on the fourth attempt? It only happened once

In almost 50 years of democracy, four presidents of the Assembly of the Republic were only elected on the second and, in one case, only on the fourth, as happened with Leonardo Ribeiro de Almeida, in 1982. .

Halfway through the First Legislature, in 1978, even though he was the only candidate, Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos, from the PS, needed two votes to be elected president of the Assembly of the Republic. .

The same happened in the following legislature, with Francisco Oliveira Dias, from the CDS, who faced Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos, in 1981, during the AD era.

The record holder was Leonardo Ribeiro de Almeida, from the PSD, who needed four elections to be elected president of the Assembly of the Republic. He nominated and ran against Teófilo Carvalho dos Santos, from the PS, in 1982, in the II Legislature, in which there was a majority of the Democratic Alliance (AD) between PSD, CDS and PPM.

In the VI Legislature, in 1991, the PSD’s second absolute majority, António Barbosa de Melo, from the PSD, against Alberto Oliveira e Silva, from the PS, in 1991, was only equally elected in the second.

With PSD and CDS-PP in the majority, in 2011, in the XII Legislature, Fernando Nobre failed two consecutive elections for president of parliament and did not run for a third. .

In his place, the Social Democrats proposed Assunção Esteves, elected on the first attempt. She was also the first woman to hold the position.

In total, in almost 50 years of democracy there have been more than 50 failed elections for the Assembly of the Republic – president, vice-presidents, secretaries and vice-secretaries. .

PS, PSD, CDS, PRD, PCP and Chega had candidates rejected by their peers, almost all of them ended up elected on the second, third or fourth vote, but there were those who withdrew their candidacies, and the Assembly table already operated with one less vice-president for three years, from 1995 to 1998.

The period with the most failed elections, over 30, was the V Legislature, between 1987 and 1991, when the PSD had an absolute majority and candidates for vice-presidents such as António Marques Júnior, from the PRD, and Ferraz de Abreu, from the PS, did not they got the necessary votes again and again. This was also the case of Cláudio Percheiro and Apolónia Teixeira, proposed by the PCP for secretaries or deputy secretaries.

In 1995, in the VII Legislature, with the PS in Government although without an absolute majority of deputies, two candidates proposed by the CDS-PP for vice-president and secretary of the Assembly Bureau, respectively, Krus Abecasis and Helena Santo, failed three times to election and withdrew their candidacies.

Krus Abecasis ended up being elected vice president more than three years later, at the end of 1998, five months before his death.

The results of these elections are recorded in the diaries of the Assembly of the Republic.

On March 31, 2022, at the beginning of the XV Legislature, there were three failed elections for vice-president of parliament, for Chega candidates Diogo Pacheco de Amorim, first, and Gabriel Mithá Ribeiro, later, and for the Liberal Initiative João Cotrim de Figueiredo , a party that subsequently did not want to propose any more candidates.

In September of that year, there was another: Rui Paulo Sousa, the third candidate proposed by Chega for vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic, also did not have enough votes.

With Lusa