Presidential elections are expected to be held in Portugal on 18 January 2026, with a possible second round on 8 February 2026.[1][2] The incumbent president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (president since 2016, supported by PSD), is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.
Within the Portuguese political system, the president serves as the head of state with primarily ceremonial duties, though the president holds some political influence and can dissolve Parliament during a crisis. The president resides at the Belém Palace in Lisbon. Since the Carnation Revolution, all Portuguese presidents have been re-elected for a second term and never tried a third, with one exception: Mário Soares (PS), who sought a non-consecutive third term in the 2006 presidential election but lost. Thus, every president since 1976 has served exactly two terms.
Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who rose to prominence as the coordinator of Portugal's COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force,[13] quickly emerged as a leading candidate in early polling as far back as mid-2022.[14] Over the next two years, he repeatedly oscillated in his public statements regarding his intentions to run, fueling speculation.[15][16][17] By November 2024, having declined to be renominated as Chief of the Naval Staff, Gouveia e Melo started preparing his path for the presidency, signaling the support from local politicians[18] and stating that he didn't want the support of any party.[19] He ultimately announced his candidacy in May 2025.[3]
Luís Marques Mendes and his wife at his campaign launch, 11 February 2025.
On the traditional centre-right, the Social Democratic Party had several high-profile potential candidates for the presidency, including the former prime ministers Pedro Passos Coelho and Pedro Santana Lopes,[20] as well as former party leaders Luís Marques Mendes and Rui Rio, and former Minister Leonor Beleza.[21] Among these, Marques Mendes soon emerged as the leading candidate, announcing his candidacy in February 2025[4] and receiving the support of the party in May 2025.[22] Meanwhile, the CDS–PP, the junior partner of PSD in the AD coalition, hoped that the former leader and former deputy prime minister, Paulo Portas, would run[23] but, after he declined to seek the presidency,[24] CDS declared support for Marques Mendes, despite internal divisions.[25]
By then, two main candidates emerged to represent the traditional left, the former PS leader, António José Seguro, who had been out of politics since 2014, and the former director-general of the International Organization for Migration, António Vitorino, as a group of high-profile socialists rejected the possibility of Seguro being the party's candidate,[31][32] even suggesting an internal referendum to decide the party's presidential candidate,[33] an idea that was ultimately rejected. Vitorino, who had by then failed to gain much support within the party's leadership as was expected,[34] ended up backing away from the race following the poor results of the PS in the May 2025 legislative election,[35] paving the way for Seguro as the clear favorite to receive the party's support in the presidential election.[36] Despite the attempt from Seguro's opponents to draft the runner-up of the 2016 presidential election, António Sampaio da Nóvoa,[37] and a final failed effort from Santos Silva to gain support to run,[38] António José Seguro ended up announcing his candidacy in June 2025,[39] receiving an almost unanimous support of the PS following the 2025 Portuguese local elections.[40]
On the left to the left of PS, the absence of Sampaio da Nóvoa from the race eliminated the prospects for a united left front,[41] prompting each party to run their own candidates, despite attempts from Seguro supporters for a single left-wing candidacy.[42][43][44] The Communist Party announced the candidacy of former vice president of the Assembly of the Republic, António Filipe, in June 2025,[45] with Filipe resolutely stating that he would not withraw from the race.[46]Catarina Martins, former leader of the Left Bloc, and incumbent MEP, entered the race in September 2025,[47] followed in October by Jorge Pinto, a LIVRE MP from Porto.[48]
For the liberals, with Rui Rocha's re-election as leader of the Liberal Initiative, parliamentary leader Mariana Leitão was initially designated as the party's presidential candidate.[54] However, Rocha later resigned as party leader following the 2025 legislative election, and Leitão shifted her focus to run for the liberals leadership, withdrawing from the presidential race.[55] In August, former leader and incumbent liberal MEP, João Cotrim de Figueiredo, announced his candidacy,[56] becoming a major right-wing contender, precluding figures, like outgoing mayor of Porto Rui Moreira, from entering the race.[57]
Both People Animals Nature and Together for the People decided not to present or back any candidate for the first round of the election,[58][59] while PAN has said they'll likely support a candidate in the second round.[60] Despite that, both Inês Sousa Real and Filipe Sousa, sole deputies from both parties, supported Seguro in the first round.[61]
Electoral system
To stand for election, candidates must be of Portuguese origin and over 35 years old, gather 7,500 signatures of support one month before the election, and submit them to the Constitutional Court of Portugal. Then, the Constitutional Court has to certify if the candidacies submitted meet the requirements to appear on the ballot.[62]
A candidate must receive a majority of votes (50% plus one vote) to be elected. If no candidate achieves a majority in the first round, a runoff election (i.e., second round, held between the two candidates who receive the most votes in the first round) has to be held.[62] The highest number of candidacies ever accepted was ten, in 2016. Since the Carnation Revolution, there has only ever been a single runoff election, in the 1986 Portuguese presidential election, when Diogo Freitas do Amaral (46.3% of votes in the first round and 48.8% in the second) lost to Mário Soares (25.4% in the first round and 51.2% in the second).
Early voting
Voters were also able to vote early, with voting starting on January 5 for hospitalized and incarcerated voters and on January 6 for portuguese citizens living abroad, ending for both groups on January 8.[63]. For citizens living in Portugal early voting occurred on 11 January, one week before election day, with voters having to register between 4 and 8 January to be eligible to cast an early ballot.[64] By the 8 January deadline, 218,481 voters (around 2% of the total of voters) had requested to vote early, a number lower than that recorded in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.[65]
Candidates
Official candidates
Candidates who formalized their candidacy and submitted enough signatures to the Constitutional Court that were accepted. The deadline to submit candidacies to the Court was 18 December 2025.[66] (candidates are ordered by how they will appear on the ballot paper[11])
Francisco Assis – MEP since 2024 (and previously in 2004–2009 and 2014–2019); former MP (1995–2004; 2009–2014; 2024); former mayor of Amarante (1989–1995)[175][176](endorsed António José Seguro)[177]
Paulo Portas – former leader of CDS – People's Party (CDS–PP) (1998–2005, 2007–2016); former deputy prime minister (2013–2015); minister in the 15th, 16th, 19th and 20th governments; former MP (1995–2016)[198][199][200][201][202]
Rodrigo Saraiva – incumbent Vice President of the Assembly of the Republic since 2024; incumbent MP since 2022; former leader of the IL parliamentary caucus (2022–2024)[209][210]
The campaign has been marked by issues like the state of healthcare in Portugal; immigration; the proposed changes to labour laws;[224] the use of presidential powers, such as the use of the power to dissolve parliament; constitutional reform; foreign policy, being highlighted the war in Ukraine, the presence of Portugal in NATO, the involvement of Donald Trump in European affairs and the situation in Venezuela;[225][226][227] plus the importance of political stability to the country.[228] During the one-on-one debates, the issue of transparency also arised, with PSD supported candidate, Luís Marques Mendes, being strongly questioned about his business past and links to corporations and the government.[229]
The last few days of the campaign have been marked by an accusation of sexual harassment against João Cotrim Figueiredo by a former female IL parliamentary aid, with the candidate denying the accusation and even filing a lawsuit against the woman who accused him, despite new revelations and contradictions being reported.[232]
The three main TV channels in Portugal, RTP1, SIC and TVI, agreed to host 28 one-on-one debates between the 8 main candidates on the ballot.[239] However, this format was challenged, as the three main broadcasters were accused of forcing an exclusivity agreement so that the debates only take place on these three channels.[240]CMTV filed a complaint to the Electoral Commission[pt] (CNE) against RTP, SIC and TVI, accusing the networks of an "anti-competitive matrix".[241] The channels denied such agreement, but the media regulator ruled in favour of CMTV and advised for the debate format to include the plaintiff.[242] Despite this advise, the 3 channels decided to not change the format.[243]Radio stations also hosted a debate with the 8 main candidates,[244] while RTP1 hosted a debate with all 11 candidates on the ballot.[245]
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1.77%)
