Expats want electronic voting for 2026 presidential election
This was one of the conclusions of the meeting of this regional body of the Council of Portuguese Communities (CCP), which met last week in Lisbon.
The Regional Council of the Portuguese Communities in Europe believes that remote electronic voting will be possible in the next presidential elections, in 2026, and advocates the creation of a working group in parliament to develop this tool.
This was one of the conclusions of the meeting of this regional body of the Council of Portuguese Communities (CCP), which met last week in Lisbon, with electronic voting being one of the topics addressed by the councillors and guests.
The contributions made at the meeting led the Regional Council of Portuguese Communities in Europe (CRCPE) to draw up a set of proposals, which were sent to the CCP and the government. One proposal was to create a working group in parliament to implement remote electronic voting.
The creation of this group “immediately after the start of the next parliamentary term, will enable the project to implement remote electronic voting to begin, starting by developing a pilot test in the shortest possible time”, according to the proposal.
The working group should be made up of technical areas focused on the application and auditability of the electronic voting system, “in what should be considered a major project of national design, in the sense of bringing all citizens closer to representative democracy and the values of the Portuguese Constitution”, as well as representatives of the CCP.
Based on the knowledge acquired during the hearings at its meeting, the CRCPE believes that this goal can still be achieved in the January 2026 presidential election.
Some of the councillors who met in Lisbon questioned the delay in implementing this measure, recalling that they pay taxes electronically without jeopardising security.
The European councillors expressed their desire to have this additional voting option, given the distances that sometimes have to be travelled to vote in polling stations and the constraints that postal voting has revealed.
In elections to parliament, such as those to be held on 18 May, Portuguese people living abroad can vote in person or by post. They must make this choice with the respective census commission abroad by the election’s scheduled date, or they will have to vote by post. Voting is only in person in presidential and European elections.
When voting by post, the Portuguese Ministry of Internal Affairs sends the ballot paper to the address indicated in the voter registration book. The voter receives the ballot paper and two envelopes, one coloured green and the other white, which are returned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The voter has to mark their voting option with a cross, then fold the ballot paper in four and place it inside the green envelope, sealing it. Insert this green envelope into the white envelope, along with a copy of the citizen’s card or identity card, and, once sealed, send it by post before election day.
