The identity of the ninth general secretary of the PS begins to be defined today, with the voting taking place in the sections belonging to a dozen district or regional federations, while the remaining nine remain for Saturday, including the largest (Porto and Braga) . The winner of the internal elections will not be announced until later that evening.
Although the two candidates who received the most support in the race to succeed António Costa are the former Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, and the Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, Daniel Adrião will be the first to exercise the right to vote . , recurring face of the minority opposition to Costa. You will vote at 6 p.m. at the facilities of the Lisbon Urban Area Federation, on Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo, in the capital.
Also this Friday, Pedro Nuno Santos will vote, traveling to the São João da Madeira section, in the Aveiro district, at 6:30 p.m. José Luís Carneiro will only exercise his right to vote on Saturday in Baião (Porto district), and must do so at 3:30 p.m.
There will be around 60,000 socialist activists with the right to vote – they will also have to elect the president of the Socialist Women, with incumbent Elza Pais’ leadership challenged by Teresa Fragoso, and elect delegates to the congress that will take place. on January 5, 6 and 7, at the Lisbon International Fair -, more than half of which will be able to do so today.
In addition to the Federation of the Urban Area of Lisbon, which brings together 55 sections from 11 municipalities and 42 sectoral sections (such as those that exist in companies such as EDP, Metropolitano de Lisboa and TAP), this Friday the activists of the sections will vote on the federations of Aveiro, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Évora, Guarda, Leiria, Oeste, Portalegre, Setúbal, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real. More than half of the voting population will make their choice that day, but the results of the vote will not be officially announced. Something that will not prevent the voting trend from becoming known to the candidates who have representatives at the polling stations.
There will be votes on Saturday in the socialist federations of Porto, Braga, Algarve, Baixo Alentejo, Coimbra, Santarém, Viseu, Azores and Madeira. Contrary to what is happening today, most polling stations will close between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, as some polling stations will be open until 10:00 PM or 11:00 PM, followed by the vote where the name of António Costa’s successor will be officially announced around 11:00 PM to be made.
Seen as the candidate with the best chance of winning the internal elections, Pedro Nuno Santos has the support of almost all the presidents of the PS federations, the party president Carlos César and six ministers (Ana Abrunhosa, Duarte Cordeiro, João Costa, Manuel Pizarro , Maria do Céu Antunes and Marina Gonçalves).
For his part, José Luís Carneiro has with him the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, and the Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, André Caldas. And yesterday, at the presentation of his book “Ganhar o Futuro”, presented by Santos Silva, he revealed more names of independents in the Honorary Committee of his candidacy, such as the Olympic athlete Aurora Cunha, the mayor of Sintra, Basílio Horta, the musicians Fernando Tordo, Rui Veloso and Tony Carreira, as well as former first lady Manuela Eanes, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Manuel António da Mota Foundation.
Without strong support, Daniel Adrião assures that he already feels like a winner because he has launched electoral reform as a priority in the debate.
Source: DN
