Portugal elects Socialist as president by landslide, exit polls show

Moderate Socialist ‍Party candidate Antonio Jose Seguro secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal’s president in a run-off vote on Sunday, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival Andre Ventura, exit polls and partial results showed.A succession of storms ⁠in recent days failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on January 18, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week because of floods.The postponement affected some 37,000 ‍registered voters, or about 0.3 per cent of the total, and is unlikely to influence the overall result.With ‍nearly 70 per cent of votes counted, 63-year-old Seguro had 64 per cent.Ventura trailed behind at 36 per cent, still likely to secure a much stronger result than the 22.8 per cent ‌his anti-immigration Chega party achieved in last year’s general election. Ballots in large cities such as Lisbon ‍and Porto are counted towards the end.Two exit polls placed Seguro in the 67 per cent to 73 per cent range and Ventura at 27 per cent to 33 per cent.