Nicosia, Cyprus. Portugal’s socialist president-elect Antonio Jose Seguro won three quarters of votes cast by Portuguese nationals in Cyprus in the weekend’s presidential runoff election. Seguro received 12 votes, while right-wing candidate Andre Ventura won four, with two invalid votes recorded.
Cyprus voting results and runoff context
The weekend’s vote was a second-round runoff, following a first round held in January. Portugal, like Cyprus, holds runoff presidential elections if no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round.
In the first round in Cyprus, Seguro won three votes, compared with Ventura’s six and centrist candidate Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo’s eight. With Cotrim de Figueiredo finishing third overall, it appeared that many of his Cyprus-based voters transferred to Seguro in the runoff.
National result
Nationwide, Seguro won 66.8 per cent of the vote, just shy of 3.5 million votes in total, to Ventura’s 33.2 per cent.
Seguro’s reaction and role of the presidency
Reacting to his victory, Seguro said the “response the Portuguese people gave today, their commitment to freedom, democracy, and the future of our country, leaves me naturally moved and proud of our nation”.
He said he had “promised loyalty and institutional cooperation with the government” and that he would “keep my word” on this front. Portugal is a semi-presidential republic in which the government is formed by parliament, but the president can either sign off on, or veto laws passed by parliament.
“I will never be a counter-power, but I will be a president who is demanding when it comes to solutions and results,” he said.
Background
Seguro is 63 and is from the town of Penamacor in eastern Portugal. He entered frontline politics when he was elected to parliament in 1991 and served as a minister without portfolio in the cabinet of then prime minister and now United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres between 1997 and 1999.
What do you think the Cyprus voting results indicate about second-round voter transfers?