Nearly 300,000 Portuguese voters abroad cast their written ballots in the March 10 legislative elections, according to data collected until Friday by the Electoral Administration, which begins counting expatriate votes on Monday.
According to the official report, as of Friday, 299,322 letters of vote had been received from voters living abroad, representing 19.42% of the 1,541,464 voters from two overseas constituencies – Europe and Outside Europe – who decided to vote by mail.
This result is almost five percentage points higher than the 14.49% of votes received during the same period in the January 2022 legislative elections.
The majority of votes received came from Europe (230,731, or 77%), followed by America (57,345, 19%), Asia and Oceania (9,396, 3%) and Africa (1,850, 1%).
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.
A total of 5,283 people registered to vote in person.
As of Friday, 106,950 letters (6.94% of the total sent) had been returned, compared with 142,408 (9.37%) in 2022 over the same period, according to election officials.
Europe dominates with 101,016 emails returned (95%). “Unknown” recipient is the top reason for returns (59.45%), followed by “unclaimed” (17.21%).
The votes of the expats who will elect four deputies – two from Europe and two from the “Beyond Europe” circle – will begin to be counted on Monday at the Lisbon Congress Center, the operation will last until Wednesday, when the results will be tabulated. will be known.
This vote could influence the final result of the election, as the Democratic Alliance coalition (SDP/CDU/PPM) elected 79 MPs and 77 MPs in last Sunday’s vote.
Only after the overall results are known and the parties represented in Parliament have been heard will the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, appoint a new Prime Minister.
The Democratic Alliance won an indirect victory with 29.5% in Sunday’s national legislative elections.
After PS, Chega was the third most voted force with 48 parliamentarians, followed by the Liberal Initiative (eight seats), BE (five), Livre and CDU (four each) and PAN (one).