The possibility of Portuguese emigrants voting electronically for the elections in Portugal is now further away, with only the PSD maintaining the intention of presenting a proposal in this regard, according to the Council of Portuguese Communities (CCP).
The idea was advanced by the president of the Permanent Council of the PCCh, who this Wednesday ended an extraordinary three-day meeting in Lisbon, with the subject of modifying the law that regulates this advisory body of the Government so that the communities dominate the meetings.
After three days in which they maintained, among other things, contacts with parliamentary groups, the mayors started with the idea that electronic voting for the elections in Portugal is further away and that not even the possibility of a pilot project of this type of voting during the CCP elections, scheduled for 2023, are certain.
Defender of the extension of the modalities of voting by communities, the CCP also did not find in the Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities, Paulo Cafôfo, with whom it met today, steps for the idea to advance.
According to Flávio Martins, the resistance is due, above all, to doubts about the safety of the process, which is why a pilot project seems, for this councilor from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more opportune than ever.
“Today there is more resistance to electronic voting than last July,” said Martins, going back to the time of the CCP meeting in Lisbon.
This resistance comes “from the most diverse parties, from the PS, from the right, from the left,” he advanced, noting that the PSD is the only party that has expressed the intention of moving forward with a proposal in this regard.
The PSD was, in fact, the party that made the most progress on the issues that were the basis of this extraordinary meeting of the CCP in Portugal, having committed to submit a bill with a proposal to amend the law that regulates the operation of the CCP . until the end of the end of November.
The PS has also prepared a proposal that should be presented at the end of the year or, at the latest, at the beginning of the next, which is not yet known to the councilors.
Flávio Martins reiterated the need for this law to be amended and take into account the changes that the Portuguese communities themselves have experienced in recent decades, starting with the increase in the number of voters, which went from 245,000 in 2014 to 1,432 million in 2019.
The CCP also calls for a support office for the council, since, for the intention of this body to rule on issues related to communities, dealt with in parliament, it will need its own space.
The increase in councilors from 80 to 100 is also a measure that the CCP defends, as well as an amount greater than that contemplated in the General State Budget for 2023, set at 350,000 euros, when the CCP had submitted a proposal of 440,000 euros.
According to Flávio Martins, so far only the PCP has submitted a proposal to change the value for 2023, defending an amount of 600,000 euros.
At the end of these three days of work, Flávio Martins said that, after the consensus expressed by the parties on the need for the law to change, it was now necessary to implement that change and expressed his hope that, after its approval and publication, It would be possible for the elections for the PCC to be held in the second half of 2023 and, in November of next year, the plenary session for the inauguration of its new composition will be held.
The CCP is a government advisory body on community affairs, currently made up of a maximum of 80 councillors, elected for four-year terms.
Source: TSF
