A non-partisan civic petition is calling on Portugal’s Parliament to review the conditions under which Portuguese citizens living abroad can exercise their right to vote.
The initiative comes after abstention levels reached nearly 96% among registered voters abroad in the first round of Portugal’s presidential election, raising fresh concerns about access to a fundamental democratic right.
The petition argues that current voting rules place a heavy burden on members of the Portuguese diaspora, particularly in elections where in-person voting is required. For many voters, this means long journeys that sometimes involve crossing borders, high travel costs, professional and family constraints, and even reliance on favourable weather conditions. Taken together, these obstacles make voting “difficult and, in some cases, practically impossible.”
Citizens behind the petition also point out that voting conditions change from one election to another, often without a clear or consistent logic from the citizen’s point of view. While some electoral processes allow more accessible options, such as postal voting or greater flexibility at consulates, others do not, “even when those solutions have already been tested in the past.”
“The goal of the petition is to reinforce the idea that the right to vote should be guaranteed under equivalent conditions of accessibility, adapted to the realities of those living outside Portugal,” they say, stressing that overseas voters face additional logistical challenges when exercising a fundamental right and that these should be properly taken into account.
Aware that previous attempts to revise these rules have failed to bring about real change, the organisers argue that “at a time when democratic achievements must be defended one by one, citizens themselves must take a more active role in protecting democracy.” By launching this petition, they aim to keep the issue on the political agenda after the end of the electoral cycle and to affirm voting rights as more than a recurring administrative detail.
The petition’s promoters also reject the idea that improving access to voting abroad would automatically benefit a specific political party. What can be clearly observed, they argue, is that the current system “contributes to abstention and to the effective exclusion of a significant number of citizens from the democratic process.”
The petition can be signed online.
