Portugal president calls for big turnout as bailout dominates election

Polls show centre-right opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho ahead, but winner still tied to tough €78bn bailout measures Portuguese voters have headed to polling stations to elect a new government whose hands are already tied by the obligations controlled by a €78bn (£69bn) bailout of its ailing economy. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva has urged people to vote, warning that they could not complain about what their politicians did over the coming years if they had not taken part in the elections. “The fact that the elections take place at a time of sacrifice and serious doubts about our future makes it especially important that each person expresses their will,” he said. By midday on Sunday, 20% of the Portuguese electorate had voted , four hours after the polls opened and seven hours before they closed. Total turnout at the last general election, in 2009, was 60%. However, both the socialists of caretaker prime minister José Sócrates, and the centre-right social democrats of opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho have already accepted the bailout conditions imposed by what the Portuguese media call “the troika” of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. “The government that will emerge from this election will have the responsibility to honour the commitments taken (under the bailout plan), which are very demanding,” Cavaco Silva warned. The most recent opinion polls suggest that Passos Coelho will win and be able to form a government with the support of the rightwing People’s party. Voting takes place against a background of economic misery, with unemployment rising to over 12% – the worst in three decades – and spending cuts in education, health and pensions seen as inevitable. Portugal’s economy is expected to contract by 2% both this year and next as spending cuts bite and tax hikes are also used to bring down the budget deficit. The election follows months of political squabbling over how to cut the debt burden. Opposition parties refused to accept the outgoing Sócrates government’s last austerity plans, prompting him to resign and further worsening Portugal’s financial plight. Portugal has taken advantage of cheap eurozone loan rates to build up debt over the past decade, despite a meagre average annual growth rate of below 1%. Soaring yields on Portuguese government bonds over the past 18 months finally forced it to ask for a bailout in April. As with fellow eurozone members Greece and Ireland, which have also been given bailouts, it cannot devalue its currency to lower export prices and make its goods more competitive on the world market. Antonio Barroso, of the political risk consultancy Eurasia, said a rightwing coalition led by Passos Coelho was the most likely election outcome. “This would be the most straightforward option if the Social Democrats and [People's party] can secure an absolute majority between them,” Barroso said in a research note. “Both parties are strongly committed to the implementation of the bailout conditions and would easily negotiate a common economic programme.” A defeat of the Sócrates government would leave the 27-member EU with just five leftwing-led member states – in Spain, Austria, Greece, Slovenia and Cyprus. Portugal European debt crisis Euro European banks IMF European Union Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.