The polling stations are open from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (closing at 8:00 p.m. mainland time in the Azores and Madeira).
The electoral administration of the Secretariat-General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (SGMAI) reports that 9,303,840 voters are registered for the local elections, including more than 41,000 foreign citizens (18,319 from the European Union and 22,799 from outside the EU).
In the municipal elections, each voter receives three ballots: one to elect the executive of one of the 308 municipal councils, another for the 308 municipal assemblies, and a third for the election of parish assemblies.
This year, 3,221 parish assemblies will be elected nationwide, along with 37 parishes that will choose their local leaders in a citizen’s assembly due to having 150 or fewer voters.
Following these elections, 302 parishes that were merged or abolished will be restored to their previous administrative and territorial statuses before 2013. 135 parish unions will cease to exist.
For voters in these disaggregating municipalities, the National Election Commission (CNE) states that only the name of the parish they are registered in will change. Most voting locations from previous elections will remain the same.
According to preliminary CNE data, more than 800 political parties and citizen groups are running.
A total of 1,584 party, coalition, and citizen group lists are competing for municipal councils, 1,519 for municipal assemblies, and 9,764 lists for parish assemblies, based on the latest SGMAI data.
In over 300 Portuguese parishes, there is only one list of candidates, primarily from PSD, indicating that the winners are already known, according to data provided by the CNE.
