Socialist António José Seguro leads in presidential three-horse election race

The Socialist Party’s António José Seguro has clipped ahead of other front-runners in Portugal’s presidential race which culminates on election day on Sunday, 18 January.

The leader of the PS party has overtaken rivals João Cotrim de Figueiredo (Liberal Initiative – IL) and André Ventura (far-right populist party Chega leader) in what is turning out to be one of the most tightly contested campaigns in Portugal’s recent democratic history.

This is according to the latest poll carried out by Pitagórica for the news outlets JN, TSF, TVI and CNN in which Seguro has 22.9% of the voting intention, followed by Cotrim de Figueiredo (21.1%) and Ventura (19.7%).

However, Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo who had been a front-runner, and PSD party’s Marques Mendes have slipped down to 16.3% and 14% of the intention to vote respectively, with Luís Marques Mendes seeing his worst performance in the polls since they began for these elections.

Even with the advance, Seguro still does not guarantee a place in the second round, as he remains in a technical tie with Cotrim de Figueiredo and Ventura, whose maximum intervals of voting intention still allow them to reach first place. ​

Gouveia e Melo has left the technical tie zone with Seguro, but still has some possibility of moving forward. ​The remaining candidates, ​such as Catarina Martins (Bloco de Esquerda) and António Filipe (Communist Party), Jorge Pinto (Livre) and musician Manuel João Vieira (Independent), have residual percentages, with small daily fluctuations.

Photo: PS Front runner António José Seguro on the campaign trail this week in Barreiro near Lisbon.

JOSÉ COELHO/LUSA
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