January 24th local time, Portugal held a presidential election. At this time, the COVID-19 situation in Portugal is grim.
January 23, the number of new confirmed cases and deaths of the novel coronavirus in the country climbed again, recording the highest one-day increase since the outbreak.
According to the German News Agency and AFP, Portugal’s General Health Department released data on the 23rd that the country added 15,333 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours, with a total of 624,469 cases.
274 new deaths, a total of 10,194 deaths, exceeding 10,000.
It is reported that the population of Portugal is about 10.8 million.
In the past week, 80,000 new cases have been confirmed in Portugal.
AFP pointed out that the pandemic in Portugal is the fastest in the world in terms of population.
Polls predict that the current center-right president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will win the presidential election. However, at this time, the pandemic in Portugal was severe.
Some observers believe that the turnout rate may be as low as 30% if the people do not vote for fear of health.
In his election speech, De Sousa expressed the hope that voters would support him as much as possible to avoid holding a second round of elections.
He believes that this can prevent the Portuguese people from facing elections again in the critical three weeks.
The report pointed out that the power of the Portuguese president is limited.
Nevertheless, the Portuguese President has the power to dissolve the parliament and demand a new election.
In the event of a minority government, the President will play a key role in accordance with the Constitution.
