Portugal's president re-elected

LISBON, Portugal (Reuters) -- Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio was re-elected for a second five-year term, maintaining the ruling Socialist Party's firm grip on power.

With the full count nearing conclusion on Sunday, Sampaio was officially shown taking nearly 56 percent of the vote, comfortably above the 50 percent he needed to win the first round.

After waiting for his main conservative rival, Social Democrat party candidate Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral, to formally accept defeat, Sampaio claimed victory in a speech promising to be the president "of all the Portuguese."

"The people have re-elected me. I am proud to receive their confidence," he told cheering supporters.

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Ferreira do Amaral, who congratulated Sampaio on his win, had some 34 percent of the vote, with Communist candidate Antonio Abreu a distant third at around five percent.

The result was bearing out pre-election surveys showing the 61-year-old former leader of the Socialist Party with a huge lead in the race for the largely ceremonial post.

Portugal has given a second five-year term to every president since the country returned to democracy in 1974, and the affable Sampaio was never likely to prove an exception.

Portugal's government is headed by Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Guterres and Sampaio's victory keeps the centre-left party in control of the levers of power.

The Portuguese president is also head of the armed forces, but his political role is largely limited to mediation in times of crisis with the weight his views possibly carrying with the public.

In his speech, Sampaio pledged to press the government for needed economic reforms and the faster modernisation of the country.

"My first duty is to be a source of pressure for change," he said.

But Sampaio's triumph was marred by a high abstention rate, which according to the official count was running at around 50 percent compared with some 35 in the previous presidential election in 1996.

It would be the lowest turnout for a presidential vote since democracy was restored.

As in past elections, a number of electoral districts boycotted the vote to press local grievances.

Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral is a former public works minister in the last conservative Social Democrat government, which lost office in 1995.

But his candidacy failed to unite conservatives, with the small, right-wing Popular Party giving him only half-hearted backing.

The presidential field was completed by two left-wing challengers who polled some four percent.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Portugal's president set for new term
January 12, 2001

Portuguese Presidency

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