"These are the most important elections for the people of Madeira and Porto Santo", said the CDS-PP/Madeira leader to Lusa news agency after voting at the Funchal Municipal Council. Stressing that voting "is not only a right but also a duty", José Manuel Rodrigues, who has been President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira since 2019, argued that the people of Madeira must vote "with a sense of responsibility".

In his view, this is the way for Madeira to have "a parliamentary framework that allows for the implementation of a new government and, above all, the approval of a budget that is absolutely essential for the economic and social life of the region, for citizens, families and businesses".

When asked about abstention, the candidate argued that "if in the last elections for the Assembly of the Republic there was a decrease in abstention", he also expects that "this time the voting levels may remain the same or even improve in relation to the last elections".

José Manuel Rodrigues refused to talk about the election of party deputies, who in the last regional elections, on 24 September 2023, ran in coalition with the PSD and secured three seats in the regional parliament.

"I would not like to talk about parties. Let's talk about the region. We are also today, people need to be aware of this, defending autonomy and defending democracy", he said.

For José Manuel Rodrigues, "autonomy has been little addressed in these elections", insisting that "we cannot let the flag of autonomy fall because it is this capacity for self-government that has allowed Madeira to progress in the past and to develop in the future".

The early regional legislative elections in Madeira are taking place today, in a poll in which more than 254 thousand voters are called to vote and 14 candidates are running to form a new parliament and a new government.

At stake in the elections, with a single constituency, are 47 seats in the Regional Legislative Assembly and, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Administration, 254,522 voters are registered to vote, of which 249,075 on the island of Madeira and 5,447 on the island of Porto Santo.

The 292 polling stations distributed across the 54 parishes of the 11 municipalities of the archipelago will be open between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm.

In the running are a coalition and 13 single parties.

Today's early elections take place eight months after the most recent regional legislative elections, after the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, dissolved the Madeiran parliament, following the political crisis triggered in January, when the leader of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, was named a defendant in a process in which suspicions of corruption are being investigated.

In the last legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Madeira had 20 representatives from the PSD, three from the CDS-PP, 11 from the PS, five from the JPP and four from Chega. The CDU, the BE, the PAN and the IL each held one seat.

Read Also: UP TO THE MINUTE: 20.22% turnout by 12:00 pm; Candidates appeal for votes (Portuguese version)