The ballots for the municipal elections that remain uncounted in Lisbon pertain to the 60 voters from São Domingos de Benfica who went to the capital’s city hall on October 5 for early voting.
The ballot paper listing the various parties running for the São Domingos de Benfica Parish Assembly did not include a checkbox next to the Chega party, hence they were not tallied. Several groups shared images of the ballot in question on social media, which can be seen in the photo accompanying this article. The image shows all parties with a checkbox, except for Chega.
Although allegedly only the Parish Assembly ballot had this error, all votes—including those for the Lisbon Municipal Assembly and the City Council—were also withheld until Tuesday, October 14, when the general vote counting assemblies began.
This could impact the race for third place in the Lisbon City Council, as Chega was only 11 votes ahead of CDU, securing two councilors, while CDU elected only one. Due to this controversy, parties may request a vote recount or even challenge the results.
“Results may change”
Yesterday, an official source from CDU Lisbon confirmed that there were 60 votes yet to be counted and that the outcome of the tally, as well as the assessment of protested and null votes, could lead to a “change of results” in the Lisbon municipal elections.
The discovery was made during the vote counting process, indicating that there “could also be requests for a recount if warranted,” reminding that recounts require justification. “The closeness of the results alone is not sufficient,” says CDU.
This prompted the newly elected councilor from Chega, Bruno Mascarenhas, to accuse the PCP of “trying to win administratively” and bringing several so-called monitors to the general counting assembly to pressure and attempt to secure an advantage that could alter the popular vote.
“We will wait for the final tally”
The Secretary General of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) stated yesterday, following the Central Committee meeting to analyze the municipal election results, that the party will await the final tally before deciding on a potential vote recount.
In question are the 60 votes yet to be counted in the parish of São Domingos de Benfica which could alter the election results in Lisbon; CDU was only 11 votes behind Chega.
“There are 60 votes yet to be counted in Lisbon due to a procedural issue, which will naturally be counted,” stated Paulo Raimundo, emphasizing that it is not only CDU saying this—it is a fact.
“Thousands and thousands of people are today finalizing the tally of results, and we will wait for the final results,” he concluded.
PS and PSD also consider requesting recounts
Other municipalities are also involved in controversies over vote counting in the municipal elections. In Braga, the socialists are keeping “open the possibility of using all legal mechanisms available” after losing the council to PSD by 276 votes.
In a statement, the PS structure in Braga refers to “a routine procedure whenever the distance between two candidacies justifies a careful and detailed re-evaluation, to eliminate all doubts and enhance the security and certainty of the results.”
Only “during this process” will the socialists decide whether to formally request recounts from the competent judge.
In Loulé, Algarve, the social-democratic candidate to the council, Hélder Martins, requested a vote recount after losing by 79 votes to Telmo Pinto of the PS.
He told SIC Notícias that in the Quarteira parish, “documents were missing, others were non-compliant, and that seems strange to us.”
The general vote counting sessions have been ongoing since 9:00 AM on Tuesday and will continue until October 16, Thursday, when the official results must be posted.
