LISBON, Jan 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa confirmed the holding of presidential elections on Jan 24, despite the lockdown enacted in Portugal to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Portuguese should vote on Sunday. It is very important to vote while respecting health rules, many democracies have done so in far more serious situations than we are experiencing,” he told journalists.
In the midst of a campaign for reelection, the head of state said that “the response to fight the pandemic” cannot “paralyze democracy,” ruling out any possibility of the election being postponed.
The president admitted that the elections must continue even if it is “almost inevitable” to hold the second round.
“This is a way of showing a commitment to affirming democracy, not suspending it, not paralyzing it, not stopping it and not postponing it. We affirm the importance of living in democracy, whether or not there is a pandemic,” the president added.
He said he assumed “maximum responsibility for what goes well or badly” in the political management of the fight against COVID-19 in Portugal.
Six other candidates are also running for the presidency. Early vote started last Sunday with some 250,000 voters taking part. This Sunday most citizens are expected to cast their votes in various locations across the country.
Portugal on Wednesday recorded its worst day since the beginning of the pandemic, with 14,647 new coronavirus infections and 219 deaths related to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
On Jan 15, Portugal entered a new nationwide lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. The state of emergency will remain in force until Jan 30.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Portugal and some other countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide — 64 of them in clinical trials — in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan 15. == NNN-XINHUA
