The final voting today in the second-round of presidential elections (for areas too hit by storms last week to take part) is moving forwards in various locations, except for Bidoeira de Cima (Leiria) where the polling station had to be closed for three hours due to a failing generator.
The situation serves to highlight just how many people in the area initially affected by Storm Kristin are still ‘surviving’ without basic amenities.
According to distribution network E-REDES, there remain 26,000 households without power – 16,000 of them in ‘the most critical area’ (namely Leiria).
With criticism of E-REDES’ perceived inability to provide the service for which it exists ever constant, the reality is that communities hammered by the last few weeks of bad weather are nowhere near returning to any form of normality.
In the village of Vale do Guizo, in Alcácer do Sal, the only way to reach a polling station this morning is by boat – and at 11am today, according to SIC Notícias, “only one voter had taken the journey.”
Whether this means people simply cannot be bothered is not immediately clear. There are 37,000 voters who were unable to vote last week – and whatever their decisions, the ‘clear winner’ of this contest has already been declared, and he is working diligently through various files now in Queluz Palace, Sintra, in order to be ‘up-to-date’ by the time he takes office on March 9.
In the meantime, authorities in Bidoeira de Cima decided to reopen the polling station late morning – not because the generator issue had been fixed, but because they realised if people didn’t vote today, they would lose their chance to vote altogether. Voting now is taking place “with the use of natural light”, explains SIC’s reporter Tânia Oliveira Ferreira.
The positive news of the day is that river levels generally are slowly receding. Areas of the Modego river basin nonetheless remain flooded, and posing risks to people’s safety. Searches still ongoing for the couple who left their home in Varride, Montemor-o-Novo, last Tuesday to travel to Coimbra for a doctor’s appointment. A mobile phone signal is no longer apparent, and fears are that the pair has suffered a tragedy.
Technically, the ‘situation of calamity’ declared for 69 municipalities in the wake of Storm Kristin comes to an end today – as does the ‘waiving of motorway tolls’ for communities in Leiria, while the full cost of the damages sustained nationally is still a long way from being calculated, and already far in excess of the €4 billion ‘estimated’ by the prime minister last week.
Source: SIC Notícias
