Portugal to hold presidential runoff for only second time in its history
Voters went to the polls to select a successor to incumbent conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who won nearly 60% in 2021 and is completing his second and final five-year term. The election saw eleven candidates competing, including far-right Chega party leader Andre Ventura, who had previously secured nearly 12% of the vote.
Exit polls conducted by ICS-ISCTE-Pitagorica suggested opposition Socialist Party candidate Antonio Jose Seguro is leading with between 30.8% and 35.2% of the vote, followed by Ventura with 19.9% to 24.1%. These results indicate that Seguro and Ventura are likely to advance to a second round on February 8, as no candidate appears poised to achieve an outright majority.
Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo of the Liberal Initiative party was projected to receive between 16.3% and 20.1%, while independent candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo and Luis Marques Mendes of the ruling center-right Social Democratic Party were each seen taking roughly 9–12% of the vote.
Portugal has only once previously held a second-round presidential election, in 1986, when former Socialist Prime Minister Mario Soares overcame a first-round defeat to beat Freitas do Amaral.
The election campaign unfolded amid debates over social inequality, low wages, housing shortages, migrant rights restrictions, and labor policies implemented by the conservative government of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. Chega, founded seven years ago and led by Ventura, emerged as the main opposition party for the first time following early parliamentary elections last May, as stated by reports.
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