Today in Lisbon they begin to count the votes of emigrants

The counting of votes for Portuguese voters living abroad will begin this Monday in Lisbon. This operation will last until Wednesday, when the names of four deputies from European and non-European circles should be known.

Meetings to collect and count the votes of Portuguese residents abroad for the March 10 legislative elections will be held at the Lisbon Congress Center.

According to the latest data from the Electoral Administration, as of Friday, March 15, 299,322 letters of vote had been received from voters living abroad, the majority of which came from Europe (230,731, or 77%), followed by America (57,345). , 19%), Asia and Oceania (9,396.3%) and Africa (1,850.1%).

The number of letters received represents 19.42% of the 1,541,464 voters from two constituencies – Europe and Outside Europe – who chose to vote by post, almost five percentage points higher than the 14.49% of votes received over the same period c Legislative elections in January 2022.

Since February 4, more than 1.5 million letters with voting forms have been sent to 189 destinations, and on February 20, votes began arriving in Portugal.

5,283 voters took advantage of the opportunity to vote in person.

Election Administration data also shows a decrease in the number of letters returned without ballots: 106,950 in 2024 (6.94%) compared with 142,408 (9.37%) in legislative elections two years ago.

Among the reasons for returning envelopes, the following stands out: “Unknown” recipient at the specified address – 59.45% and “Not claimed” – 17.21%.

The Portuguese expatriate votes will lead to the election of four deputies who could influence the final result of the legislative elections, as the Democratic Alliance coalition (PSD/CDS/PPM) elected 79 deputies and the PS 77.

Only after Wednesday, the last day for collecting and counting these votes, will the President of the Republic, who had to listen to all the parties that have seats in Parliament up to that point, appoint a new prime minister.

In the 2022 legislative elections, the PS took both European seats and shared the non-European circle with the PSD.

The Democratic Alliance (AD), uniting PSD, HDZ and PPM, with 29.49% of the votes counted, received 79 deputies in the Assembly of the Republic in Sunday’s legislative elections against 77 for the PS (28.66%), following Chegi’s 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.