Home > 1.3.2.2 Voting procedures > PORTUGAL - Electoral Law
 
 
 
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Article 79-A
 

1. The following can cast their vote in advance:


a) Military personnel who, on the day of the election, are impeded from attending the polling station owing to professional commitments unable to be postponed;


b) Agents of forces and services who exercise national security functions, under the terms of the law, and who are in an identical situation to that outlined in the previous line;


c) Seafaring or aircraft workers, as well as railway and long haul road travel personnel who, in carrying out their professional activity, are presumably aboard or away from their residential area on the Election Day;


d) Electors who, due to illness, are hospitalized or presumably hospitalized and cannot travel to the polling station;


e) Electors who are detained in prison but who are not deprived of their political rights.


f) Members of official national teams, organized into sports federations granted the status of sports organization of public utility, and who are abroad participating in competitions, on the Election Day.


g) All electors not covered by previous points that, by force of representation of any collective person of the public, private or cooperative sectors, of workers representative organizations or representative organizations of economic activities, and, still, other electors that, by imperative of their professional commitments, are unable to attend the polling station on the Election Day.


2. The voters referred to in points a), b) and g) of the previous number, when temporarily abroad between the 12th day before the election and the day of the election, may exercise the right to vote in the diplomatic or consular representations or in the external delegations of ministries and Portuguese public institutions previously defined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in accordance with Article 79-D.


3. Students may also vote early as long as they are enrolled in an establishment located in a district, autonomous region or island different from the one they are registered in the electoral census.


4. The following voters registered in national territory and temporarily abroad may also vote in advance: a) Military, militarized and civilian agents integrated in peacekeeping operations, technical military cooperation or equivalent; b) Doctors, nurses and other citizens integrated into humanitarian missions, recognized as such by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; c) Researchers and fellows in university institutions or equivalent, recognized as such by the competent ministry; d) Students enrolled in educational institutions or attending them under exchange programs; e) Sick voters in treatment abroad as well as their accompanying persons.


5. Spouses or equivalent, relatives and such that live with the electors mentioned in the previous number may also vote in advance.


6. Only the votes received at the parish headquarters corresponding to the polling station in which the elector should vote will be accepted, if received up to one day before the election date.


7. The competing lists in the election can nominate, under the general terms, delegates to supervise the early voting operations, who are entitled to all the immunities and rights outlined in article 50-A.