The first meeting of the new parliament could take place on March 25 or 26.

The first plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic of the 16th Legislative Assembly could take place on March 25 or 26, if there are no complaints about the overseas vote count and if the CNE does not meet its deadlines.

The topic was discussed this Wednesday at the leaders’ meeting, and at the end the press secretary of this body, PS deputy Maria da Luz Rocinha, only indicated that a new leaders’ conference will take place after the publication of the official election results. Legislative elections on March 10.

This Wednesday’s meeting also began discussions on seat allocation in the future hemicycle, with the returning CDS-PP expected to be positioned between Chega and IL.

Parliamentary sources contacted by Lusa indicated that the meeting mentioned March 25 as the first possible date for the first meeting of the Assembly of the Republic, and March 26 as the most likely.

However, everything depends on the publication of the results in the Diário da República, since Article 173 of the Constitution states that “The Assembly of the Republic meets independently on the third day after the calculation of the general election results.” .

This publication, in turn, depends on whether there are appeals over the vote count (which is due to end on March 20) and whether the National Electoral Commission (CNE) exhausts its maximum publication period of eight days.

No complaints, but since the CNE is facing a publication deadline, the first meeting of the new 16th Parliament could not take place until after Easter, on April 1st.

According to the CNE, meetings to collect and count the votes of residents abroad will meet on March 18, 19 and 20, starting at 9:00 every day, at the Lisbon Congress Center.

If either party believes there were irregularities in the vote count, it has 24 hours to file an appeal, provided that the complaint or protest was “submitted when it arose.”

Within eight days of receiving the protocols of the general tabulation of all electoral districts, the CNE prepares and publishes in the first series of the Diário da República the official map with the election results.

At the leaders’ meeting this Wednesday, the discussion on the distribution of seats in the future hemicycle, in which there will be nine political forces, with the return of the SDS-PP to parliament, was also discussed, but did not conclude.

The SDS-NP should be positioned between Chega and IL and have a seat in the front row, a demand put forward at the meeting of the SDP, which gives up one of its seats at the front to the Christian Democrats, which, according to parliamentarian sources, was by mutual agreement.

However, the seat allocation map for the first session is yet to be finalized and BE, PCP and Chega have diverging intentions.

Although four deputies due to emigration have not yet been determined, the Democratic Alliance (AD), uniting PSD, CDS and PPM, with 29.49%, won 79 deputies in the Assembly of the Republic in Sunday’s legislative elections against 77 from the PS (28, 66%), followed by Chega with 48 elected deputies (18.06%).

IL with eight seats, BE with five and PAN with one, maintained the number of MPs. Livre went from one elected representative to four, and the CDU lost two seats and was left with four deputies.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has already begun to listen to the parties and coalitions represented in Parliament, in a process that began on Tuesday and will only end on the 20th, the day he will receive the AD.

“Once the results of the surveys of Portuguese communities abroad are known, the President of the Republic will appoint a new Prime Minister,” said a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet on Monday.