Portugal elects Socialist candidate

Moderate Socialist Antonio Jose Seguro secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal's president in a runoff vote on Sunday, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival Andre Ventura, exit polls and partial results showed.



A ⁠succession of storms in recent days failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on January 18, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week due to floods.



The postponement affected some ⁠37,000 registered voters, or about 0.3% of the total, and is unlikely to influence the overall result.



With nearly 70% of votes counted, 63-year-old Seguro garnered 64%.



Ventura trailed behind at 36%, still likely to secure a much stronger result than the 22.8% his anti-immigration Chega party achieved in last year's general election.



Ballots in large cities such as Lisbon and Porto are counted towards the ⁠end.



Two exit polls placed Seguro in the 67%-73% range and Ventura at 27%-33%.



Last year, Chega became the second-largest parliamentary force, overtaking the Socialists and landing behind the centre-right ruling alliance, which garnered 31.2%.