Voter turnout 4% above 2021. The year of the pandemic had the worst abstention ever

Voter turnout for the election of the next President of the Republic stood at 21.18% as of 12:00 today, according to data from the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the last presidential elections, on January 24, 2021, and at the same time, voter turnout was 17.07%. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the abstention rate reached 60,76% — the biggest abstention ever in Portugal.

The polls for the presidential elections opened today at 08:00 in mainland Portugal and Madeira and an hour later in the Azores due to the time difference, closing at 19:00.

At the opening of polling stations across the country, starting at 8:00 am, the National Elections Commission (CNE) there was no record of any incidentsaccording to its spokesperson, André Wemans.

For today’s vote, you are registered 11,039,672 voters174,662 more than in the 2021 presidential election.

5 years ago, the covid-19 pandemic and automatic census of Portuguese abroad contributed to increase the abstention rate in presidential elections.

Only 39.24% of voters participated in the last presidential elections, the year of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s re-election, held in most serious moment of the spread of covid-19 in Portugal. At a time when the country was in confinement and with health restrictions that limited travel to the polls, 60.76% of voters did not vote.

The low number of voters registered at the time was also justified by the automatic voter registration of emigrants with valid citizenship cardwhich resulted from a change to the law made in 2018.

In the 2021 presidential elections, of the 1,549,380 registered abroad, just 29,153 (1.88%) voted. The “giant” abstention rate of 98.12%contrasted with that recorded in the national territory, which was 54.55%.

Before 2021, the highest abstention rate in presidential elections post-25 April was that of re-election of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, in 2011when 53.56% of voters did not go to the polls.

A Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s first election, in 2016occupies the last place on the ‘podium’ of abstention rates, with 51.34% abstentionists.

In re-elections, there is normally a lower turnout to the polls, as happened in the Jorge Sampaio’s second termin January 2001, when there were 50.29% abstentionists.

A exception to this ‘rule’ was played by Ramalho Eaneswho was re-elected in 1980, in a vote that recorded the lower percentage of abstentionistsaround 15%, and was the most competitive presidential election everwith 84.39% of voters.