The Minister of Internal Affairs admitted, this Thursday, the possibility of local elections, scheduled for September or October, to be held on two weekends due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an interview with the Lusa agency, Eduardo Cabrita said that in the municipal elections "early voting is not foreseen", but there is "openness to ponder models", with "the distribution of votes between two weekends being perfectly possible".
Noting that “everything depends on the Assembly of the Republic”, the government official explained that, in local elections, “voting in mobility is not possible because that would imply having as many ballot papers as there are three thousand parishes that exist in the country and, therefore, it would be an impossible logistical operation ”.
Asked about changing the date of the elections, Eduardo Cabrita referred that matters of electoral law are “absolute reserves” of the Assembly of the Republic.
On the 25th of March, the PSD's bill will be discussed in the Assembly of the Republic, which foresees the postponement of local elections from September/October to November/December due to the Covid-19 epidemic in Portugal.
“The competence to change the dates belongs to the Assembly of the Republic, but the opinion I have is the same as the presidential ones. I hope that the health situation is clearly better, today it is clearly better than in January, but it proves today that we would not have gained anything in postponing the presidential elections ”, he maintained.
The minister also said that there is no certainty "that the situation in December could be better than in September".
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