Never before has Portugal been subjected to candidates for the Presidency of the Republic dancing the night away in a discotheque, throwing themselves out of a kayak during a daredevil exercise in rafting, doing press-ups online, receiving a lesson in boxing or doing keep-fit with seniors.
This particular campaign has marked a new era of campaigning – and a rather ‘underhand’ one at that.
CHEGA candidate André Ventura has already been caught out publishing the results of a fictitious poll – putting himself in the lead with 24.6% of voting intentions, while a former legal advisor of the parliamentary group of Iniciativa Liberal has gone online to ‘expose’, in vivid language, alleged sexual advances made to her by the IL candidate, João Cotrim de Figueiredo.
Why, news anchors have wondered, did this former legal advisor – who now works for the centre-right government – wait for the last week of the campaign?
With Cotrim de Figueiredo vehemently refuting the story – and asserting that he will be lodging an action for defamation – 30 women who have worked with the former IL leader have ‘gone public’ to say they never “experienced or witnessed any inadequate behaviour” on his part.
This unpleasant episode is just one in an altogether ‘unpresidential’ campaign. The government’s favourite, Luís Marques Mendes (PSD), recently took a remark by Cotrim de Figueiredo (that if he himself didn’t get into the second round of voting, he would consider voting for any other of the candidates) as showing that a vote for the IL candidate is “useless” – and should be used for himself, Luís Marques Mendes, who has ‘much better chances’.
Mr Marques Mendes has said similar things about his candidacy throughout the campaign, and recently got the prime minister to say as much – to ‘insist’ that Luís Marques Mendes was the man to vote for.
PS Socialists have also tried to ‘persuade’ other candidates of the left to ‘desist’ in favour of their man, António José Seguro – so that voters ‘don’t waste their votes’…
The truth is that this ‘race’ – for what should be the most noble job in the country – has no clear leaders, and no-one ‘in the running’ behaving in a noble fashion.
Bets are focused on five of the 11 candidates (in alphabetical order): André Ventura (CHEGA), António José Seguro (PS), Henrique Gouveia e Melo (independent), João Cotrim de Figueiredo (IL) and Luís Marques Mendes (PSD/CDS-PP).
The other six are seen to have little chances of success – and consequently have not been seen resorting to the frenetic efforts at self-promotion of the ‘favourite five’.
There is still little question that this particular election will be settled on Sunday, when polling stations open at 8am. A second round – between the two ‘winners’ emerging from Sunday’s polling – has already been penciled in for February 8, while 218,000 voters have already cast their ballots in ‘early voting’.
