Posted on 01/20/2006 2:27:55 PM PST by The_Republican
LISBON (AFP) - Portugal wrapped up campaigning ahead of a weekend presidential election which is expected to select a right-of-centre leader for the first time since democracy was restored in 1974.
Economics professor Anibal Cavaco Silva, who oversaw a period of economic growth as a centre-right prime minister between 1985 and 1995, has between 52 and 53 percent support, four polls published Friday showed.
The 66-year-old candidate, backed by the Social Democrats and the smaller Popular Party, needs to get more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday to avoid a runoff election between the top two contenders on February 12.
The remainder of the vote is split among five other candidates who are all from the left of centre, including two from Prime Minister Jose Socrates' Socialists who won an outright majority in the 230-seat parliament in a general election in February.
But as roughly 10 percent of voters say they have not yet decided who they will vote for, with most of these voters coming from the left, analysts said the need for a second round could not be ruled out.
The presidency is a highly visible but largely ceremonial role. The president has no power to legislate but can dissolve parliament, veto laws, call general elections and appoint the prime minister based on vote results.
The president can also influence government policy by identifying priorities or expressing opinions about proposed initiatives.
Socialist President Jorge Sampaio is stepping down after serving two consecutive five-year terms, the maximum allowed under the constitution.
Cavaco Silva, who has has made the sluggish state of the economy the focus of his campaign, has appealed for a high voter turnout but has fallen short of asking for an outright first-round win.
"Sunday could be the moment of truth, the responsibility before each of you is great," he told a rally on Thursday night in the central city of Viseu where polls show his support is at its highest levels.
If a runoff election were to take place the left would likely rally around just one candidate but polls taken so far suggest Cavaco Silva, whose campaign has resonated with voters concerned about rising unemployment, would still win.
Three of the four polls published Friday put maverick Socialist lawmaker and poet Manuel Alegre, 69, who is running as an independent, in second place with between 16.2 and 20.6 percent support.
Former prime minister and two-time president Mario Soares, 81, who has the backing of the Socialist Party he helped found, has between 12.4 and 16.9 percent support, and is in second place in one of the four polls.
At a campaign rally in Lisbon on Thursday night attended by some 8,000 people, both Soares and Socrates appealed for the Socialists to rally around the official party canditate.
"The division of an army before a battle makes victory difficult," Socrates said.
The split left-wing field also includes Communist Party leader Jeronimo de Sousa, the chief of the far-left Left Block, Franciso Louca, and Antonio Garcia Pereira who heads the tiny Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers.
Analysts said a highly disciplined campaign had also benefited Cavaco Silva, who avoided controversy and was available for only a limited number of media interviews.
"He did not carry out a campaign, he did a triumphal march, practically without talking and explaining himself," said Lisbon University political scientist Vasco Pulido Valente.
BTTT
Protugal and Canada *both* going conservative?!?
The World's Turned Upside Down!
Be careful of 'right wing' and 'left wing', even 'conservative' and 'liberal' mean VERY different things once you go international than they do here at home (they are relative terms).
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