Portugal opposition centre-right party wins election: official results
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Portugal's center-right party narrowly clinches victory in early election but falls short of a majority.
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Luis Montenegro, leader of the center-right Democratic Alliance coalition, casts his ballot at a polling station in Espinho, northern Portugal, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP)
In an early general election, Portugal's primary center-right party narrowly surpassed the incumbent Socialists, yet failed to secure a majority, according to near-complete official results released early Monday.
With only four seats remaining to be assigned in Portugal's 230-seat parliament, the Democratic Alliance secured 29.49 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll, while the Socialists, in power since 2015, obtained 28.66 percent.
Portuguese voters went to the polls on Sunday to either opt for a switch towards a center-right government or to secure the center-left already in power, however, it seems like both sides do not have a full majority so far. It is worth noting that the current main problems in Portugal include a difficult housing crisis, low wages, sinking healthcare, and corruption, with many labeling it as endemic to the mainstream parties.
The elections chronicle
Four months following the socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa's abrupt resignation during a "graft investigation", this election pushed the two centrist parties in Portugal, the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), to a battlefield once again.
The Democratic Alliance, which forms Montenegro's Social Democratic Party and two smaller conservative parties, takes the majority in most opinion polls, however, it could face hurdles in ruling if it does not obtain Chega's supporting votes, according to Reuters. It is noteworthy that Montenegro has so far crossed out any deals with the radical populists, who are aiming for a government role.
The ruling Socialist Democratic Party, currently led by Pedro Nuno Santos following Costa's resignation, will possibly try to rekindle their old alliances with the Left Bloc and the Communists that enabled them to govern between 2015 and 2019 if the allied left wins more than 115 seats in the 230-seat parliament, Reuters further reported.
Surveys predict support for Chega's anti-establishment message, its promises to end corruption, and hostility to what it believes is "excessive immigration," has "roughly doubled" since the last election in 2022, even though it is still in third place.
