Abstention in Portugal. “Some of the abstention is fictitious. It’s not real”
Abstention has been increasing over the last legislative years.
In 2019, with 51.4% broken records. The last time the Portuguese went to the polls to elect the deputies of the Assembly of the Republic, abstention, if taken into account for the number of deputies, had won. José Palmeira, professor at the Department of Political Science at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Minho, believes that the increase in the number of parties with parliamentary representation and information available in the media may contribute to an increase in abstention.
The abstention rate, since 1975, has been rising over the years. “From the outset, we have to bear in mind the following: a part of the said abstention is fictitious. It’s not real”, explains José Palmeira to ComUM. Currently, anyone over the age of 18 who has a citizen’s card can vote automatically.
José Palmeira adds that abstention also covers emigrants. “It is estimated that there are about a million and a half who are in devout condition. However, due to what they are so stimulated that they have for many years now, many are not so stimulated that they are so well informed to the country and therefore are not so stimulated that they are so well informed. According to News Diary, there are 1,143,604 presented by the National Elections Commission (CNE) but who cannot vote, as is the case of deceased persons and emigrants who are still registered in Portugal.
The professor that the abstention rate is “much lower is disclosed on the day of the statements” and that points out the dissatisfaction of the main factors. “There are people who are unhappy with the system, who think that parties and politicians are all the same and, therefore, are not interested in political activity”. On the other hand, who are, who are, possibly, the Government, even if they abstain, which doesn’t matter, because nothing affects them.
In the first democracies, held in 1975, there was the lowest number of abstentions to date (8.6%). The political scientist Marina Costa Lobo, in a Public opinion article, explains that this increase in electoral participation was a “reflection of the enchantment with the regime, the freedom of universal suffrage and the freedom to choose the democratic ballot”.
On October 6, 2019, his abstention right was registered on October 6, 2019, with 51.4% of the vote, not exercising the maximum right. According to Marina Costa Lobo, with this percentage, Portugal is one of the Western European countries in which electoral participation has decreased the most.
“Hardly anyone can today claim that it is because of ignorance that he does not vote”
Whereas provisional data 20211 of the Electoral Census, at least one million voter turnout data, at least, are linked to fantasy. The different organs distributed by the media have pointed to 650 thousand numbers and numbers of numbers, by fans, 25 million social communications, -1.25 million social communications, -fan among 25 million. In this way, José Palmeira supports an update of the electoral roll. “It’s very insincere on the night of attempts to comment on the results and always ‘hitting the same button’”.
Portugal lived “a long time” in an authoritarian regime. “We come from a passive political culture and this political culture cannot be changed by decree. It is not that we will run, that in all of us we can participate in a democratic regime, that we become for a democratic regime”, that we, José Palmeira.
“A also has to do with stimuli and, even in a democratic regime, we are not very encouraged to participate. There are few referendums and there is no habit of promoting people’s participation, even from a civic point of view”, says the professor. “The example has to come from above. The state should encourage more people’s participation. When there are no incentives for participation, it is natural that, from an electoral point of view, citizens also feel motivated”, he adds.
One of the facts that José Palmeira points out that can help reduce abstention is “the fact that people now have access to information. Whether through social networks, radio or television, today citizens are much more informed”. “Hardly anyone can today claim that it is because of ignorance that they do not vote”, he adds.