But abstention rate still looks like it will be fairly high
The turnout for today’s European elections surpassed that of the 2019 ballot.
At 5pm, with just two more hours of voting to go, official figures showed that 30.79% of voters registered had already voted.
In 2019, the total turnout stood at 30.73%.
The comparative increase in turnout was already being recorded this morning, when 14.48% of citizens registered to vote had done so by 12 noon – a higher percentage than the 11.56% who voted during the same period in 2019.
As for the turnout of non-national EU voters, official figures show that 15.34% had voted just before 5pm today.
Five years ago, Portugal saw the abstention rate in European elections reach almost 70%, an all-time low since the first elections held in 1987.
At that time – a year after Portugal joined the then European Economic Community (EEC) – 72.42% of voters went to the polls to choose Portugal’s representatives in the European Parliament, with abstention standing at just 27.8%.
Today’s elections saw mobile voting made possible for the first time, on presentation of an official ID document with an up-to-date photograph.
In a statement, the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration (SGMAI) recognised that at around 11:30 this morning, there was a peak in voter turnout, which coincided with a security update, leading to a slowdown/ temporary collapse in the mobile voting system. One-off situations were however “promptly resolved”, SGMAI assured.
More than 10.8 million registered voters in Portugal and abroad were free today to choose 21 of the European Parliament’s 720 MEPs.
In Portugal, 17 parties and coalitions are running in these elections, for which more than 252,000 voters registered for early voting last Sunday.
Source material: LUSA
