The votes of the emigrants, who elect four deputies – two from Europe and two from the Outside Europe circle – will begin to be counted on Monday, at the Lisbon Congress Center, in an operation that will run until Wednesday, when they will be known the results.
Almost 300,000 Portuguese voters abroad voted by letter for the legislative elections on March 10, according to data collected until Friday by the Electoral Administration, which begins counting emigrants’ votes on Monday.
According to an official report, as of Friday, 299,322 letters with votes had been received from voters residing abroad, representing 19.42% of the 1,541,464 voters from the two constituencies abroad – Europe and Outside Europe – who chose to vote via post.
This vote is almost five percentage points higher than the 14.49% of votes received in the same period in the January 2022 legislative elections.
The majority of votes received come from Europe (230,731, or 77%), followed by America (57,345, 19%), Asia and Oceania (9,396, 3%) and Africa (1,850, 1%).
More than 1.5 million letters with voting forms were sent to 189 destinations from February 4th and votes began to arrive in Portugal on February 20th.
In total, 5,283 were registered to vote in person.
According to the Electoral Administration, as of Friday, 106,950 letters had been returned (6.94% of the total sent), while in 2022 142,408 (9.37%) had been returned in the same period.
Europe dominates, with 101,016 letters returned (95%). “Unknown” recipient is the main reason for returns (59.45%), followed by “unclaimed” (17.21%).
The votes of the emigrants, who elect four deputies – two from Europe and two from the Outside Europe circle – will begin to be counted on Monday, at the Lisbon Congress Center, in an operation that will run until Wednesday, when they will be known the results.
This vote could influence the final result of the election, since the Democratic Alliance coalition (PSD/CDS/PPM) elected 79 deputies and the PS 77 in last Sunday’s vote.
Only after the total results are known, and after hearing the parties with parliamentary representation, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, will nominate the new prime minister.
The Democratic Alliance obtained a tangential victory, with 29.5%, in Sunday’s national legislative elections.
After the PS, Chega was the third most voted force, with 48 parliamentarians, followed by the Liberal Initiative (eight mandates), BE (five), Livre and CDU (four each) and PAN (one).
