All polling stations for the legislative elections opened today at 08:00, on the mainland and Madeira, without registering any incidents during the first hour, revealed the spokesman for the National Elections Commission (CNE).
“There have been no incidents so far,” the spokesman said in a statement to the Lusa agency an hour after the opening of polling stations.
In the Azores, polling stations opened and will close one hour later compared to Lisbon time, due to the time difference.
21 political forces are running for early parliamentary elections, the same number as in 2019, but only 13 are running in all constituencies.
In total, 230 deputies are elected to the Assembly of the Republic, from which the XXIII Constitutional Government will emerge.
10,820,337 voters can vote for today’s early elections, 9,808 more than in the previous legislative elections in 2019.
In 2019, the abstention rate reached a record 51.43%, compared with 8.3% in the 1975 Constituent Assembly elections, or 16.4% in the first legislative elections in 1976.
The current legislature, which would only end in 2023, was interrupted after the ‘lead’ of the State Budget for 2022 generated a political crisis that led to the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early elections.