Rui Tavares is the third party leader to take part in the vote. Watch the video

Rui Tavares voted for Escola Secundária São Vicente in Lisbon.

Paulo Raimundo has already voted for Escola Básica de Alhos Vedros na Moita.

The General Secretary of the PCP has already voted at 10:05 today for the legislative elections, expressing confidence in a large voter turnout after exercising his right to vote at the Aljos Vedros Basic School in Moita (Setubal district).

“We’re on the 50th anniversary of April 25, it’s a good time to reaffirm April also in terms of voting rights, which took so much to achieve, and it was a good way to reaffirm April with a big electoral vote. participation,” Paulo Raimundo told reporters as he placed his ballot in the ballot box at polling station 16.

Rui Rocha was the first party leader to vote

Polls open late due to early voting

Voters standing in line to vote at 8 a.m. this Sunday were forced to wait about 15 minutes at some polling station doors as early votes (sealed in envelopes) were still being dropped into ballot boxes.

TO CM reports are coming in from voters who had to wait about 30 minutes.

Voting takes place as usual

Voting in legislative elections is “proceeding normally in most parts of the country,” a source at the National Electoral Commission (CNE) told Lusa.

Polling stations opened at 8:00 am on the Portuguese mainland and Madeira.

Polling stations for legislative elections opened at 08:00 on the Portuguese mainland and Madeira and closed at 19:00. In the Azores they open and close an hour later.

According to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (GSAI), 10,819,122 voters can vote. A total of 230 deputies will be elected in 22 constituencies (18 of which are in mainland Portugal and the rest in the Azores, Madeira, Europe and outside Europe) in an electoral exercise that will cost around 24 million euros.

In these elections, the district of Setúbal will elect another deputy whose mandate was lost by the district of Viana do Castelo, which lost about 2,500 voters. Setúbal thus gains a mandate, now electing 19 deputies, while Viana do Castelo loses its mandate, now having only five.

There are 18 political parties running for seats in these expected legislative elections, three fewer than in the 2019 and 2022 elections.

The New Right is the only party to debut in this electoral act, joining the PS, Democratic Alliance (PSD/CDS/PPM), Chege, IL, BE, CDU (PCP/PEV), PAN, Livre, Nós, Cidadãos!, Alternative 21 (MPT/Alliance), ADN, PTP, RIR, JPP, Ergue-te, MAS, Volt Portugal and PCTP/MRPP.

In the previous legislative election, on January 30, 2022, the abstention rate was 48.54%, which is lower than the 2019 legislative election, in which the abstention rate reached a record high of 51.43%.

CMTV with mega-television work on election day

On the day of the legislative elections, CMTV has prepared a special program that will surprise viewers with its innovative nature.

The channel begins coverage of legislative elections CM at 20:00, with the results of the exit poll forecasts carried out by Intercampus – a poll that will reveal the identity of the next Prime Minister of Portugal.

Cold and rain will improve by the time we get to the polls

On the day Portugal goes to vote to choose a government, weather forecasts indicate “occasional heavy showers until the end of the morning, decreasing in intensity and frequency from the afternoon.” There is therefore a slight improvement in the weather after Saturday’s heaviest snowfall in six years blanketed the northern and central interior with a half-metre-high white blanket and isolated several villages.