"Among the voluntary registrations made on the three platforms available as well as through direct recruitment carried out by some municipalities, we believe that there are sufficient registrations to meet the needs identified for each municipality", refers the MAI, in a response sent to Lusa when asked about whether the existing IT technicians are enough to ensure mobile voting in the European elections.

The MAI advances that 218 IT support technicians are missing for 23 municipalities, emphasizing that "many of these needs are being met through direct recruitment by some of these municipalities".

In this sense, the ministry guarantees that the number of missing technicians will be "significantly lower than indicated".

"At this moment, the Electoral Administration of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration is validating with the municipalities the existence of local recruitment, and the number of missing IT support technicians per municipality", it specifies.

According to the MAI, there are 19,132 registrations for IT support technicians for the 12,100 polling stations that are expected to be set up in Portugal.

"Given the number of registrations and training actions taking place, we believe that the number of IT support technicians will be sufficient", assures the MAI, noting that, in the autonomous regions, the number of registrations "greatly exceeded the number of needs identified in each municipality, with several training actions already scheduled for next week".

The MAI also states that "a contingency plan is being created which, in the event of punctual unavailability of the system or difficulty in accessing the dematerialized electoral registers by the polling stations, the operation of the polling station will thus be ensured through telephone access to an automated answering system or by an operator".

Portuguese voters will be able to vote on the day of the elections for the European Parliament, June 9th, anywhere in the country, or also on the eve, if they are abroad, with mobile voting being the great novelty of this electoral act, according to the National Elections Commission (CNE).

Citizens do not have to inform in advance or register to vote outside their usual polling station, that is, they just have to show up at a polling place.

This voting is possible thanks to the dematerialization of the electoral registers, with the communication being made online that the voter has voted, in a very fast and secure process, according to the CNE, which eliminates risks of data theft.

Due to this change, it was necessary to recruit an IT technician to be present at the polling stations in each of the polling stations and sections, duly accredited by the Electoral Administration, to provide support in the use of computer equipment, in the event of punctual unavailability of the system or difficulties in accessing by the polling stations.

According to the CNE, this type of voting is only possible in single-constituency elections -- as is the case with European and presidential elections.

Early voting, with prior registration, is maintained, as in previous elections, taking place a week before, on June 2nd. However, if the registered voter does not vote on that day, they can do so on the 9th.

The elections for the European Parliament, in which voters from the 27 Member States choose the 720 MEPs, will take place between June 6th and 9th. In Portugal, the vote is scheduled for the 9th, choosing the 21 national representatives in the European Parliament.

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