Disillusioned and shocked, that is how Portuguese emigrants are feeling after the Constitutional Court's order to repeat the electoral act. Due to this decision, the inauguration of the new government will be postponed to March.
After winning a surprising absolute majority in the snap elections that occurred in January (see our article on the Portuguese snap elections for background information) everything seemed like a bed of roses for the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa. Until a few days ago, when a situation of embarrassment hit: 157,205 of the 195,701 votes cast by émigrés living in Europe were annulled.
Last week, the Constitutional Court of Portugal ordered the repetition of the electoral acts in the assemblies of the circle of Europe, seeing as there were irregularities in the electoral process. Thus, stating that this occurrence was indeed an assault on democracy. It is important to mention that this decision was only taken, thanks to the recourse that four parties - Chega, PAN, Livre and Volt Portugal made, appealing to the repetition of the votes.
At issue is the fact that most polling stations have validated votes that were not accompanied by photocopies of the IDs of voters abroad, which would make the ballot papers void.
In the 2019 elections, it had been noticed that several émigrés did not add a photocopy of their ID when sending their vote in the envelope, which lead to the annulation of 30,000 votes. Trying to correct this, the entities decided, in a meeting before the snap elections in January, that they would allow any votes from émigrés to be counted, whether they complied with the electoral law or not.
However, the fact that votes that did not include a photocopy of the person's ID were simply being thrown away, clearly seemed not only like an assault on democracy but also like a slap in the face of all Portuguese emigrants, who had been told that their votes would count. In comparison to the 2019 elections, it must be noted that the number of votes cast by émigrés living in Europe increased, showing the interest of Portuguese citizens that are abroad in taking part in the democratic process.
In consequence of this occurrence, many are the emigrants that feel disillusioned and already expressed their opinions on the situation. Due to this, it is expected that very few will go to the Portuguese consulate in their country of residence to repeat the whole voting process, especially when it is about an election in which their votes are certain to change nothing.
Political journalist Daniel Oliveira, in an article for the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, put the situation into the following headline: "An absurd procession of incompetence towards a monumental fiasco”. Like many others and even myself, Oliveira believes that there will be “stratospheric abstention" in the repetition of the votes.
But the whole situation is even more ridiculous and unbelievable, seeing as the decision of the Constitutional Court only refers to the so-called circle of Europe. Meaning that the votes of other Portuguese emigrants in other areas of the world will not have the opportunity to vote again.
Overall, this seems like a never-ending story: a story that broke the hearts of all Portuguese emigrants, who may now be loosing their faith in a democratic system.
Filipa Moreira
23.02.2022
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