Facing a record number of Covid-19 cases with three weeks to go before legislative elections, Portugal is now debating what to do to ensure voters in compulsory isolation can vote.
Projections for the worst pandemic scenario in the country, which has about 10.3 million inhabitants, estimate more than 400 thousand isolated at the end of January — the third Portuguese election since the beginning of the health crisis is scheduled for the 30th. , although the Directorate-General for Health has revised the isolation rules, reducing mandatory cases and shortening the isolation of asymptomatic patients from ten to seven days, the elections must still take place with many confined.
This week, the country reached its highest daily number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic. There were two days with more than 39,000 new infections, and the incidence and transmission rate remain high.
With so many people forced to stay in isolation, Portugal is looking for alternatives. The government submitted to the Attorney General’s Office a request for an urgent opinion on a possible impediment to the exercise of the right to vote within this scenario of Covid-19. Although the result has not yet been released, several constitutionalists have publicly commented on the issue, stating that the right to vote is a pillar of the democratic rule of law and that it must be ensured.
Thanks to high vaccination coverage —almost 90% of the population has a complete immunization schedule—, the number of deaths and hospitalizations has not followed the increase in cases, remaining at much lower levels than at the most critical moment for the health system. , in January 2021.
Still, public health experts are reticent about easing restrictions on going to the polls. Vice-president of the Public Health Physicians Association, Gustavo Tato Borges says that giving in could set a dangerous precedent in the country. “Soon we would have people asking to lift the isolation due to an important business or the signing of a contract”, he told the Público newspaper.
Based on the experience of other countries, the possibility of voting in a drive-thru style was considered, as has already been done in Israel and the Netherlands, or even the creation of a special voting time after the polls close for the general public, as carried out in Catalonia. On Thursday (6), after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister António Costa, of the Socialist Party, said that several of the alternatives that have been proposed cannot be implemented for legal reasons.
“Our electoral law regulates everything in detail, even the [de voto], and only the Assembly of the Republic can amend the legislation. There are solutions that have been suggested and that the government cannot adopt,” said Costa, who specifically mentioned the issue of extending voting hours.
The socialist also highlighted the need for legal certainty for the holding of elections.
For now, the government’s big bet has been to increase the ability to vote early. “We are working with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities to expand as much as possible the number of tables for early voting to be held on January 23.”
In the two previous pandemic elections —presidential and municipal, in January and September 2021, respectively—, the alternative for the isolated was to collect votes at home or in nursing homes and hospitals.
Teams collected the votes of previously registered voters, at an appointed time, and the organization was left to the local authorities in the municipalities. The system, however, receives criticism for a limitation: according to the rules in force, the model is only valid for those who had the confinement decreed by the health authorities until January 23.
Portugal now has early legislative elections after the dissolution of Parliament determined by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in December. The head of state chose to call new elections after the socialist executive failed to get the 2022 Budget approved.
The most recent poll of voting intentions, carried out jointly by the newspaper Expresso and the broadcaster SIC, indicates that the Socialist Party remains in the lead, with 38%. The main opposition party, the PSD (centre-right), however, has been rising in the preference of the Portuguese and now has 31% of preference.
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