The counting of the votes cast by Portuguese emigrants, who made their choice by post, ends today, revealing the four MPs for the Europe and Outside Europe constituencies.
The counting and registration of these votes from Portuguese residents abroad has been taking place at the Lisbon Congress Center since Monday, when more than 140,000 votes were counted. On Tuesday, a further 117,000 votes were counted.
Over the course of these three days, the letters with the Portuguese votes for the legislative elections on March 10 were scrutinized by around 700 citizens chosen by the political parties to carry out this work.
As of last Monday, 311,113 letters had arrived in Portugal with the votes of Portuguese emigrants in the legislative elections, according to the Electoral Administration.
The votes that arrive by post by 17:00 today will be scrutinized and registered, in a process that will last until 19:00.
The data shows that 20.18% of the votes arrived in Portugal, which represents an increase of five percentage points compared to those received in 2022 (15.17%).
By Monday, 120,706 ballot papers had been returned, compared to 174,970 in the last parliamentary elections.
More than 1.5 million letters with ballot papers were sent to 189 destinations as of February 4 and the ballots began arriving in Portugal on February 20.
5,283 voters opted to vote in person.
The votes of Portuguese emigrants will result in the election of four MPs (two for the Europe constituency and two for the Out of Europe constituency), which could influence the final result of the legislative elections on the 10th, since the Democratic Alliance coalition (PSD/CDS/PPM) elected 79 MPs and the PS 77.
