António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Count of emigrant votes in the 2024 legislative elections
Vote counting was completed this Monday: André Ventura won with more than 40%, far from Seguro.
The first round of the presidential elections took place on January 18th, but only 8 days later the counting of votes was completed. emigrants
André Ventura wonwith a wide margin for the other candidates: 40,93% for the president of Chega. Much further back were: António José Segurocom 23,69% of votes, and João Cotrim de Figueiredocom 15,88%.
Luís Marques Mendes (7.97%) was ahead of Henrique Gouveia e Melo (5.23%). Catarina Martins had 2.71%, Jorge Pinto 1.27% and António Filipe just 1.04% of the votes
Manuel João Vieira got 0.93%, André Pestana got 0.31% and Humberto Correia got 0.04% of emigrants’ preferences.
Portuguese emigrants in Europe, America and Africa gave victory to Ventura in this first round. In Asia e Oceania, the most voted was Mendes Brands.
Abstention: almost 96%
Just 4.09% of emigrant voters voted in these presidential elections, in the first round. One abstention – as usual – very high, this time 95,91%.
O in-person voting, the distance to consulates and the lack of more polling stations are identified by the civic association Also Somos Portugueses (TSP) as the main obstacles to the participation of Portuguese emigrants.
“As with him Portuguese elections are outdated and it is urgent to change them to adapt them to modern times”, argues the TSP in a statement.
“It is confirmed once again that voting only in person does not serve the Portuguese abroad. The only alternative is to digital vote (electronic voting)”, continues the association, which promises to do everything possible to ensure that digital voting abroad is adopted during the current legislature.
Ventura’s clear victory “should give the Government, the Assembly of the Republic and society in general a lot to think about, which should also interpret it as a clear sign of discontent”.
