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Portugal’s general elections amid populist surge

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Al Jazeera :
Voting is under way in Portugal’s snap parliamentary elections as the two moderate blocs, the centre left and the centre right, are vying to win power amid the growing clout of the far right.
Polling stations opened on Sunday at 8am (08:00 GMT) and close at 7pm (19:00 GMT) in mainland Portugal and an hour later on the Azores archipelago. Results are expected around midnight. There are nearly 11 million registered voters to elect the 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.
The issues dominating the campaign in Western Europe’s poorest country include a crippling housing crisis, low wages, sagging healthcare and corruption, seen by many as endemic to the mainstream parties, which have alternated power since the end of a dictatorship five decades ago.
The far-right Chega party is looking to capitalise on corruption allegations that have dogged the two main parties – the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
The general elections are being held four months after Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s sudden resignation amid a corruption investigation.
“I hope life gets better than what it is now,” 86-year-old Diamantino Vieira told Reuters news agency as he waited to vote at a polling station in the northern city of Espinho, where Luis Montenegro, who is at the helm of the Democratic Alliance (AD) of right-leaning parties, will also cast his ballot.
“It’s shaping up to be a very tight election,” Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Lisbon, the capital, said.
She said the Socialists want to extend their eight years in power while the centre-right hopes to win the elections. “Both these parties have been blighted over the years by a number of corruption scandals – something on many voters’ minds,” Butler said.
“Some voters are fed up with the political system, they want something different, they are looking for alternatives. That’s the sort of sentiment that has fueled the rise of the hard-right Chega party.
The AD, which compromises Montenegro’s PSD and two smaller conservative parties, leads in most opinion polls, but it could struggle to govern without Chega’s supporting votes. Montenegro has so far ruled out any deals with the radical populists, who want a government role.

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