A presidential election was held in Portugal on 24 January 2021. The incumbent President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was reelected for a second term.
The elections were held during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Portugal was under a lockdown as of election day. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was reelected by a landslide, winning 60.7 percent of the votes. He won every district in the country and all 308 municipalities, a result which happened for the first time ever in Portuguese democracy; he won 3,083 parishes out of 3,092. The election also marked the rise of right-wing candidate André Ventura, leader of Chega, who polled 3rd with almost 12 percent of the votes. In second place, former MEP and Ambassador Ana Gomes was able to win 13 percent of the votes, the best result ever for a female candidate in a presidential election. As in the 2016 elections, the Socialist Party (PS) did not officially endorse any candidate, despite Ana Gomes being a PS member. The rest of candidates did not receive above 5 percent each.
Voter turnout fell to 39 percent, a drop of nine percentage points, mainly due to the automatic registration of overseas voters; this practice increased the number of registered voters to almost 11 million. In Portugal alone, turnout stood at 45.45 percent, a decrease of 4.6 percentage points compared to 2016. This was the lowest drop in turnout in an election with an incumbent running since 1980. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was sworn in for a second term as President on 9 March 2021.
Background
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was elected president with 52% of the votes in January 2016. In Portugal, the president is the head of state and has mostly ceremonial powers. However, the president does have some political influence, and can dissolve Parliament if a crisis occurs. The president's official residence is the Belém Palace in Lisbon. Throughout his first term, Marcelo had to cohabitate with Socialist prime minister António Costa, with the institutional relationship described as very good. During his term as head of state, Marcelo also had high approval ratings, influenced by his "affections presidency" style and his empathetic response to national disasters, such as the 2017 wildfires. The last year of Marcelo's first term was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the head of state declaring a state of emergency at the government's request.
Pre-campaign
Early on, the Social Democrats (PSD) declared their support for Marcelo's re-election, while the president only announced his re-election bid in December 2020, just over a month before election day. On the Socialist Party (PS), prime minister António Costa also expressed, from early on, his "endorsement" to a second term for Marcelo, but the prime minister's position created divisions on the left and within his own party. After this, former PS MEP Ana Gomes, who strongly criticized Costa's stance, announced she was considering a run, which she confirmed in September 2020. Sole Chega party MP, André Ventura, also announced his candidacy just a few months after being elected to parliament in the 2019 legislative election, while the Left Bloc repeated the candidacy of Marisa Matias, the communists presented MEP João Ferreira and the Liberal Initiative, also a new party that gained representation in the 2019 legislative election, declared Tiago Mayan Gonçalves as their presidential candidate.
Electoral system
Under Portuguese law, a candidate must receive a majority of votes (50% plus one vote) to be elected. If no candidate achieved a majority in the first round, a runoff election (i.e., second round, held between the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round) should be held.
In order to stand for election, candidates must be of Portuguese origin and over 35 years old, gather 7,500 signatures of support one month before the election and submit them to the Constitutional Court of Portugal. The Constitutional Court then certifies the candidacies which meet the requirements to appear on the ballot. The highest number of candidacies ever accepted was ten in 2016.
Early voting
For the first time in a Presidential election, voters were also able to vote early, which would happen one week before election day on 17 January 2021. Voters had to register between 10 and 14 January in order to be eligible to cast an early ballot; a total of 246,880 voters requested to vote early in 2021. On 17 January, 197,903 voters (80.16 percent of voters that registered) cast an early ballot.
Candidates
There were seven candidates certified to run in this election. In addition, the Constitutional Court rejected Eduardo Baptista's nomination due to insufficient signatures, although his name still appeared on the ballot, albeit votes cast for him would be counted as invalid. Six more individuals had announced their intention to run for President, but did not present any application to the Court, two of whom publicly stated that they would withdraw, which includes Democratic Republican Party (PDR) leader Bruno Fialho who, despite saying he had enough signatures, decided to drop out in order "not to spend thousands of euros on the country". Finally, three more individuals were, for a while, thought of as potential or speculative candidates, but later ruled out any type of candidacy.
Rejected candidates
- Eduardo Baptista, NATO Staff Officer, Independent;
Unsuccessful candidates
- Carla Bastos, Socialist Party member, Finances inspector;
- Orlando Cruz, former People's Party member;
- Paulo Alves, Together for the People party member, former member of the Felgueiras municipal assembly (2005-2009)
- Paulo Patinha Antão, unemployed
Withdrew
- Bruno Fialho, Democratic Republican Party (PDR) leader;
- Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira, People's Monarchist Party (PPM) president, fado singer, actor and rural producer
Refused
- Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, former Secretary of State for Tourism (2013–2015) and People's Party MP (2011–2013).
- António Sampaio da Nóvoa, former Rector of the University of Lisbon (2006–2013); presidential candidate in 2016, polled second place with almost 23 percent of the vote;
- Miguel Albuquerque, President of the Regional Government of Madeira since 2015; former Mayor of Funchal (1994–2013).
Campaign
Issues
The campaign was severely limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, with candidates being forced to reduce campaign events to a minimum due to movement limitations imposed by the Government to prevent the spread of the virus. There were mandatory curfews in several municipalities and movement between all municipalities was prohibited during the weekends.
At the beginning of the electoral campaign, the president of the French National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, confirmed that she would go to Lisbon to support André Ventura's presidential candidacy.
Voter turnout
The table below shows voter turnout throughout election day including voters from Overseas.
Results
Accomplishments
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa won the third highest vote margin ever in a presidential election in Portugal since democracy was restored, only behind Mário Soares' 70.35 percent in 1991 and António Ramalho Eanes' 61.59 percent in 1976. He was also the first candidate ever to win the vote in all municipalities, and win in 3083 out of 3092 parishes of the country.
Ana Gomes became the most voted woman ever in a presidential election in Portugal, beating Marisa Matias' previous record of 10.12 percent in 2016, and the first to get second place.