HIBAPRESS – Agencies
The moderate socialist António José Seguro won the second round of the presidential elections in Portugal on Sunday evening, leading by a large margin over his opponent, the leader of the far-right André Ventura, according to preliminary official results.
These results, published by the Portuguese Ministry of Internal Administration on its official website, revealed that Seguro, 63 years old, received 64.81 percent of the votes, compared to 35.19 percent for his opponent Ventura (43 years old), thus succeeding, at the beginning of next March, the conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who held the position for ten years. While the far-right candidate promised a "break" with the parties that have governed during the past fifty years, António José Seguro presented himself as a unifying candidate, warning of a "nightmare" that the country might face if his opponent won. Seguro had topped the results of the first round with 31.1 percent of the votes, and was supported by a number of political figures from the far left, the center, and even from the right, with the exception of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who chose to remain neutral and refused to issue a voting directive after the elimination of the candidate supported by his party.
