Abstention drops by at least 18%: it will be the lowest in 20 years

Abstention should be between 35.6% and 43%, after the record 60.76% that gave Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa a second term. Cavaco was elected in 2006 without votes from 37.4% of registered voters, but abstention this year has already exceeded that figure.

Television projections for the abstention in this Sunday’s presidential elections indicate that this should be between 35.6% and 43%.

RTP, with a survey from the Catholic University, put forward a forecast of abstention between 37% and 43% at 7pm and SIC and TVI (ICS/ISCTE/GFK/Pitagórica) a forecast of between 35.6% and 40.6%.

The data point to the possible lowest abstention since 2006the year in which Hannibal Cavaco Silva was elected for the first time, when only 37,4% didn’t vote. The lowest abstention rate ever was recorded in 1980, in the second election of António Ramalho Eanes: only 15.8% of voters gave up their right to vote.

The abstention rate in the presidential elections of 2021 was located in 60.76%, the highest everwith Covid-19 and the automatic census of Portuguese abroad contributing to this increase. In 2016in Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s first election, the abstention rate was 51,34%. In 2011, elections that elected Cavaco Silva again, abstention was 53.56%.

Data from the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs released to 16h00 realized that the affluence to the polls for the election of the next President of the Republic was located, in 45,51%above what was recorded in the last elections.

In these last presidential elections, on January 24, at the same time, voter turnout was 35.44%, which translates into an increase of 10.07 percentage points. In the 2016 presidential elections, voter turnout at 4:00 pm stood at 37.69%.

The polls opened at 08:00 and closed at 19:00. A total of 11,039,672 voters were registered.

At 8pm, the first television projections for a António José Seguro’s victory in the first round and for a second round between the candidate supported by the PS and André Ventura or João Cotrim de Figueiredo.