(28 Jan 2022) Portugal on Friday ended two weeks of political campaigning for national elections, coming amidst an omicron surge in the country.
On Friday leader of the Social Democrats, the main opposition party, Rui Rio gathered hundreds of supporters in downtown Lisbon as a show of confidence ahead of Sunday's vote.
In recent days, polls have brought the two running candidates closer, with speculation that either Rio and current Prime Minister and Socialist leader Antonio Costa could win.
The country's facing a snap election for a new parliament and government follows a political crisis caused when the minority government formed by the Socialists in 2019 collapsed last November, halfway through its four-year term, when parliament rejected its 2022 state budget.
The spending plan is key.
Portugal, a country of 10.3 million people, is poised to begin deploying some 45 billion euros ($50.8 billion) in help from the EU to help fire up the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new funds are seen as a chance for Portugal to make up lost economic ground.
But the snap election, intended to clarify the country's direction, could backfire and leave Portugal back where it started two months ago - with a vulnerable minority government.
An apparent surge in support for smaller parties means the two main parties will likely have to cut a deal with one or more of them, with an extended period of political negotiation expected.
The country's two main parties, the center-left Socialists and the center-right Social Democrats, have alternated in power for decades, but Portugal's problems have continued.
Those two parties have for decades collected around 70% of the vote, alternating in government, and opinion polls suggest a close race between them this time.
Portugal's economy has been falling behind the rest of the EU since 2000, when its real annual GDP per capita was 16,230 euros ($18,300) compared with an EU average of 22,460 ($25,330).
By 2020, Portugal had edged higher to 17,070 euros ($19,250) while the bloc's average surged to 26,380 euros ($29,750).
Sunday's ballot is taking place amid a surge in cases blamed on the highly infectious omicron coronavirus variant, with hundreds of thousands of infected people confined at home.
To reconcile the constitutional right to vote and the duty to care for public health, authorities are allowing infected people to go to polling stations, with a recommendation they go in a less busy evening time slot.
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