Campaign activities for the presidential elections on Sunday January 18 are focused today in the districts of Lisbon, Setúbal, Santarém and Vila Real, but with fewer initiatives due to the televised debate with the 11 candidates later this evening.
This will be the only debate with the 11. It is scheduled for 10pm on RTP and RTP Notícias.
On the third official day of the election campaign, candidates André Ventura, António José Seguro, and António Filipe are focusing on the Setúbal district.
The president of CHEGA is also holding a street rally in Pinhal Novo, while António José Seguro (PS) will begin the day with a visit to the Sociedade Musical Fraternidade Operária Grandolense, in Grândola, reserving the afternoon to go to the ACM in Setúbal.
António Filipe (PCP communists) will also be in Setúbal in the morning for a meeting with workers at the Sociedade Musical e Recreativa União Setubalense, and in the early afternoon he will meet with Manuel Carvalho da Silva at A Voz do Operário, in Lisbon.
João Cotrim Figueiredo, supported by Iniciativa Liberal, will also be in Lisbon and will be visiting the League of Combatants in the early afternoon.
Luís Marques Mendes, supported by the PSD/CDS-PP government, will visit the Torres Vedras Municipal Market in the morning.
Also this morning, Catarina Martins, supported by Bloco de Esquerda (the Left Bloc), is visiting the Torres Novas Market.
Further north, in Vila Real district, Henrique Gouveia e Melo is visiting the municipal market, before heading to Alijó for the Feira de Reis (Three Kings Fair).
That leaves the ‘outliers’ in this ‘race to the presidency’, trade unionist André Pestana, painter Humberto Correia, and musician Manuel João Vieira. None of these are holding any kind of campaign schedule, but they will be present at tonight’s debate.
The winner of this election will succeed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, elected 10 years ago, whose term ends in March.
If, as all polls indicate, none of the candidates obtains an absolute majority, there will be a second round of voting on February 8, in which only the two candidates with the most votes will compete. This is the ‘head-to-head’ that the traditional parties (PSD and PS) are dreading as they are desperate to have their candidates involved, but unsure whether Luís Marques Mendes and António Seguro actually have the support to get through to the second round.
Source: LUSA
