The State Secretary of the Interior clarified this Thursday that citizens with an identity card can vote mobile for the European elections, assuming a gap in the statements she has made in parliament about this regime.
Last Friday in the Assembly of the Republic, during the discussion of the government’s proposal on the exemption for mobile voting and the right to vote early in next year’s European elections, Isabel Oneto had declared that anyone who still has an identity card is not allowed to vote at any polling station in the country.
“It was a mistake on my part in the Assembly of the Republic and I must accept it”the secretary of state said to Lusa.
Isabel Oneto underlined that “whoever has an identity card can vote for mobility and this is already on the bill” of the government was generally approved last Friday.
“When I presented the proposal, I said that those who had an identity card could not vote for mobility, that is not true. Whoever has an identity card can vote for mobility, the only thing that cannot vote for mobility is not having identification”needed.
The secretary indicates that very few citizens need to continue to vote at their polling station and indicates that these citizens need two witnesses to vote without any identification.
The government diploma allows any citizen who presents the identification document (citizen card or identity card) to vote on election day by mobile, without prior registration, in any polling station on the national territory or abroad, thanks to the use of dematerialized voter lists.
On the other hand, early voting is also allowed on the Sunday before the 2024 European elections and, as with the pandemic, there will be a system of early voting for hospitalized patients, detained citizens and citizens temporarily abroad displaced.
The Secretary of State explained that whoever has a citizen card, the mobility vote is done by reading the chip and, in the case of citizens with an identity card, the voter’s name is given and entered by whoever is in the polling station system.
Following Isabel Oneto’s statements in parliament, the newspaper Público reported on Thursday that, according to data from the Ministry of Justice, there are more than 807 thousand citizens with an identity card and that they could therefore not vote by mobile phone.
The government’s proposal comes after the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, opposed by Portugal, announced that the next European elections will take place between 6 and 9 June 2024 – in Portugal on Sunday 9 June.
On June 10, the Day of Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities is celebrated. And June 13 is a public holiday in several municipalities, including Lisbon.
Source: DN
