Results are complete opposite to commentator forecasts
Commentators who last week suggested that voting intentions for CHEGA had ‘settled’ – and that any floating voters would now most likely choose another party – may be eating their words this morning as a new poll shows both ‘main parties’ (AD, Democratic Alliance and PS Socialists) are losing ground while CHEGA is gaining.
The latest poll performed for Público, RTP and Antena 1 by the Universidade Católica, shows that support for AD and PS has fallen two percentage points, while CHEGA’s support has increased by one.
The undecided – far from being won over by all the campaigning – are also increasing.
Bottom line, with still more than a week to go before the frenzied caravans with their megaphones blaring will be forced to stop and leave the rest to citizens in the cold light of day, is that AD has fallen from 27% of the vote, to 25%; PS has fallen from 22% to 20%, CHEGA has climbed from 13% to 14%, and the smaller parties are also either increasing, or holding their own.
However one looks at this election race, it is still all between AD/ PS, with CHEGA bringing up the rear. The other parties do not come close in terms of voting intentions – all in low single figure percentages.
Another unknown is the influence of the floating vote. This appears from the poll to have increased from 17% to 20%, with 84% of those questioned insisting that they will vote on March 10, even if they haven’t yet decided for whom.
For a bird’s eye view of the latest poll, click here.
It indicates the juggling that will almost certainly have to take place to find a government with any kind of healthy majority – and all the while the parties touring the country are making statements guaranteed to increase their popularity.
Today, we see PAN calling for a suspension of ALL licences to mine lithium (see separate story) – and PS Socialists (in the form of secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos) promising to “correct all the things that didn’t go well” in the previous checkered administrations of his predecessor António Costa.
Mr Nuno Santos’ pledge followed a very public dressing down by a group of female pensioners in Vendas Novas today – alluding to the myriad ‘scandals/ cases’ of the Costa years.
“Now it is a new leadership; a new generation”, promised Nuno Santos. “We are going to look after people like we always have, and we are going to do better still…”
Questioned in his wake, one of the pensioners said Mr Nuno Santos’ guarantees were ‘all very well’, but the problem is that he “was part of the whole mess” that led to these early elections (that now have no clear winner in sight).
