Amid surging COVID-19 deaths and a strict confinement, many Portuguese abstained from voting — but those who did make it the polls, or had poll workers come to them, have given incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa a definitive victory as the country’s President for one more term.
The 72-year-old former law professor and TV personality who’s been President of the republic for the past five years took around 61% of the votes, with 99.91% of the freguesias reporting as of 8h30 on Monday.
Related: Presidential Election 2021
Ana Gomes, from the Socialist party (PS), came in second, with approximately 13% of the votes, and the populist André Ventura took third place, with around 12%.
But only 39.49% of the country’s 10.8 million registered voters cast their ballots this year, down from 49% last year, according to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. That’s despite restrictions on movement being lifted on Sunday to allow people to get to the polls.
On Sunday, Direção-Geral de Saude reported 11,721 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours and 275 more COVID-related deaths, which was a new daily record. The day before, Portugal hit a daily record for the number of new cases over the preceding 24 hours, with 15,333.
Related: Portugal Closes Schools, Creches, Universities for 15 Days to Combat Spread of COVID
Related: How to Get a Private COVID-19 Test in Lisbon
Read about Portugal’s vaccination initiatives here.
