“It is very good and gratifying to see that there is a strong turnout at the polls. At least, that is the information we also have from the parish council, indicating that people are participating. Today is a celebration day for democracy,” stated Inês Sousa Real to journalists after voting in the Lisbon parish of Telheiras.
Inês Sousa Real noted that in these municipal elections, Portuguese citizens are “deciding on policies closest to their daily lives,” emphasizing the “importance” of voting “on their own future.”
“I regret that the Secretariat-General of the Ministry of Internal Administration did not provide Braille ballots. We have received this complaint,” she informed.
“Although the law does not require it, I believe that for reasons of inclusion and true democratic participation, we need a society that normalizes inclusion,” advocated the PAN leader, expressing hope that future elections will include Braille ballots.
Inês Sousa Real also thanked the “citizens who volunteered to contribute” at the polling stations.
“It’s going to be a very long day, but thanks to those participating at the voting tables, we can have free, democratic, and participatory elections,” she emphasized.
For the PAN spokesperson, “the great victory for democracy today is for people to participate, to vote, and to combat abstention,” while noting the perception that “successive election events,” particularly at the national level, “have worn out the population.”
“Municipal elections are among the most stable as they are not preemptively called, with rare exceptions. […] Being more stable events, I believe people will participate more directly, and we hope this to be the case. However, the perception is that these very unstable, short political cycles have worn people out. People want stability,” she noted.
Sousa Real assured that PAN will do everything possible to ensure “this stability exists” and that there is dialogue at “national or local levels.”
“At the national level, we will be present tomorrow [Monday] to discuss both the State Budget and to see to what extent the Government is open to dialogue without closing itself around its proposal, which is absolutely fundamental,” she highlighted.
Today, the PAN leader will have lunch with her parents before joining the various structures nationwide “to understand the sentiment of each and every party member.”
More than 9.3 million voters are eligible to vote in these municipal elections, according to voter registration data provided by the Secretariat-General of the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI).
Voters will choose the governing bodies of 308 Municipal Councils, 308 Municipal Assemblies, and 3,221 Parish Assemblies, as there are three ballots.
A total of 1,584 party, coalition, and citizen group lists are running for Municipal Councils, 1,519 for Municipal Assemblies, and 9,764 lists for Parish Assemblies, according to the most updated lists from the Secretariat-General of the MAI.
