Portugal has held free elections since the
fall of the dictatorship in 1974, and since that time the voting rights of
Portuguese citizens living abroad have been substantially expanded. External
voting rights were granted from the outset, but only for elections to the
national parliament. Following Portugal’s
entry into the European Community in 1986, external voting rights were granted
for Portuguese citizens abroad to vote for the national lists for the European
Parliament elections.
More
recently, 1997 marked a major change in the process of external voting in Portugal. The
constitution was revised for the fourth time, and one of the specific topics
for reform was the rules governing elections. Only minor changes were
introduced, but in this constitutional package, agreed by the two major
parties, the centre–left Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS) and the
centre–right Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata, PSD), Portuguese
citizens resident abroad became eligible to vote in both presidential elections
and national referendums as well as legislative elections. This had been
promoted in particular by the PSD in the constitutional negotiations. (The
experience of legislative elections since 1976 had shown that the PSD has
consistently had a majority of votes among external voters, which helps to
explain why that party lobbied for an extension of emigrants’ voting rights.)
These
changes equalized the electoral rights of Portuguese citizens inside and
outside Portugal
for all national-level elections, although external voting was not extended to
local elections. Portuguese citizens with external voting rights were first
able to exercise their right to vote for the president of the republic in 2001.
Ironically, the extension of voting rights has coincided with a marked decrease
in external voting participation as measured by turnout in legislative
elections.
In
legislative elections, the electoral system that has been adopted is the
proportional representation (PR) d’Hondt system, with closed lists presented in
multi-member districts. Portuguese citizens living abroad are grouped into two
electoral districts, each electing two members of parliament (MPs). One
electoral district covers all European countries, the other the rest of the
world (‘outside Europe’). The principle of
proportionality is therefore not fully observed in the external voting for
legislative elections. This is because in 1976 there were fears that the large
Portuguese emigrant community would elect a high proportion of MPs, which was
considered unfair given that they do not live in Portugal.
Eligibility
for an external vote
External
voting can only be exercised if citizens register, although (unlike for
citizens residing in Portuguese territory) registration is not mandatory
(article 3, no. 3, Law no. 13/99, 22 March 1999).
Registration can be done at any time up to 60 days before an election. Those
whose 18th birthday falls between registration and election day can, however,
register up to 55 days before the election.
For
external voting, registration occurs mostly at consulates. If there is no
consulate in a particular country, then registration normally occurs at the
embassy or another designated registration centre. There are around 200
registration centres abroad, some of which cover more than one country. There
are also a few countries where there is more than one registration centre
because of the large number of Portuguese citizens in those countries.
Eligibility
criteria vary according to the type of election. For legislative elections, the
criteria are the same as those for internal electors (voters have to be
18 years or older). For European Parliament elections, until recently only
Portuguese citizens resident abroad who were living in another European Union
(EU) country could vote, thus excluding all those Portuguese citizens who lived
outside the EU. However, this has recently been changed: Organic Law
no. 1/2005 of January 2005 allows all electors resident abroad to vote in
elections to the European Parliament. The eligibility criteria for external
voting in presidential elections have changed since voting rights were
extended. All those who were registered to vote in legislative elections by
31 December 1996 can also vote in presidential elections. The criteria for
voting eligibility of all other Portuguese nationals residing abroad were to be
defined by ordinary law, which should ‘take into account the existence of
effective ties to the national community’ (Constitution of the Republic,
article 121, no. 2). However, because these criteria had not been
defined when the next presidential election occurred, in 2001, all those
registered to vote for legislative elections both before and after 1996 were
eligible to vote in those elections. Recently, the criteria for establishing
‘effective ties’ have been adopted: citizens must (a) lived in an EU country or in a
Portuguese-speaking country for not more than 15 years; (b) lived in any other country for not more
than ten years; or (c) been to
Portugal and stayed there at least 30 days in the previous five years, and be
able to prove that they can speak Portuguese (Law no. 5/2005 of
8 September 2005).
Finally,
Law no. 5/2005 also states that the eligibility criteria for Portuguese
citizens residing abroad for voting in referendums are identical to the
criteria applied for such citizens in presidential elections. However, this
should be interpreted with caution: Portuguese citizens resident abroad have never
actually been called to vote on any referendum, and it is not quite clear
whether these rules would indeed apply in any future national referendum.
External
voting procedure
Here as
well there are differences between types of election. Decree-Law no. 95-C/76
of 30 January 1976 sets out the procedural aspects of external voting in
legislative elections. In these elections, as well as in European Parliament
elections, the external voting right is exercised by post. However, Organic Law
no. 1/2005 changed voting procedures for European Parliament elections:
voting is now done in person at the designated polling sites.
For
elections to the national parliament and the European Parliament (from 1987 to
2004), the Ministry of Internal Administration in Portugal sends a ballot paper
with two envelopes to all citizens registered in electoral registers abroad
around two to three weeks before polling day. The voter fills in his or her
ballot paper, folds it and inserts it in one of the envelopes which he or she then
seals and places in the other envelope together with a photocopy of his or her
elector’s card. All must be sent back to the designated reception point in Portugal
and can be posted up until (and including) the day of the election. Ten days
following the election, the external ballot papers are opened and counted. In
legislative elections, the four parliamentary seats reserved for external
voters are then allocated. In European Parliament elections, the external votes
are added to the internal national totals (Decree-Law no. 95C/76).
In
presidential elections and referendums, Portuguese residents abroad have to
vote in person. In these cases, external voting takes place over a period of
three days up to and including election day. Registered electors can go to the
voting centre closest to their place of residence to cast their vote, which is
then opened and counted.
Registration
and turnout patterns in different types of election
The
following table shows the number of registered external electors and the
turnout in each legislative election since 1976. The number of electors grew
until 1999, since when it has fallen a little. This may be due to an effort to ‘clean’
the electoral registers of those who had died or moved—a process that also
occurred for the national register in the late 1990s. The drop in turnout is
remarkable—from 86.7 per cent in 1976 to 25.2 per cent in 2005. While electoral
participation in Portugal
has declined substantially, participation by external electors has dropped even
more. (It should be noted that there are different patterns of turnout in
Europe and outside Europe, with turnout being higher in Europe.)
External voting in portuguese legislative elections
Source:
National Electoral Commission (Comissão Nacional de Eleições, CNE),
<http://www.cne.pt>.
In European
Parliament elections, the electoral system is identical to that for legislative
elections, with the important exception that there is only one electoral
district. The external vote is simply added to the national vote. The next
table shows external voting in these elections. Turnout has been very low from
the outset.
External voting in European Parliament elections in Portugal
Source: National Electoral Commission (Comissão Nacional de
Eleições, CNE), <http://www.cne.pt>.
The same
procedure is also used for presidential elections, which are held using the
Two-Round System. Again, there is one electoral district that comprises all
electors, both internal and external. External votes are added to internal
votes. In the first presidential election where external voting was allowed,
participation was extremely low, even by Portugal’s external voting
standards. In the most recent presidential election, in January 2005, the size
of the electoral register and turnout increased slightly but the participation of
Portuguese citizens living abroad was still low.
External voting in presidential elections in Portugal
Source:
Technical Secretariat for Electoral Processes Matters (Secretariado Técnico dos
Assuntos para o Processo Eleitoral, STAPE),
<http://www.stape.pt>.
Referendums
There were
no provisions for referendums in the 1976 constitution. Only with the third
revision of the constitution in 1989 was a national referendum allowed under
specific circumstances, but the possibility of external voting was not
foreseen. The constitutional revision of 1997 introduced a number of
modifications to the referendum law. It allows Portuguese nationals resident
abroad to vote in referendums, provided they are correctly registered, whenever
the referendum deals with issues that concern them specifically. This last
provision is ambiguous and lends itself to significant political argument about
whether in any given referendum Portuguese citizens resident abroad may or may
not vote. In practice, there have been two referendums in Portugal: one in 1998 on abortion
and another in 1999 on the issue of regionalization. In both instances,
following Constitutional Court
rulings (Ruling 288/98 and Ruling 532/98), external voting was not allowed.
