{"id":55790,"date":"2025-09-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observatorio-democracia.pt\/?p=55790"},"modified":"2026-10-13T22:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:33:21","slug":"suggested-reading-abstention-in-portugal-is-not-as-high-as-official-figures-suggest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observatorio-democracia.pt\/en\/suggested-reading-abstention-in-portugal-is-not-as-high-as-official-figures-suggest\/","title":{"rendered":"Suggested reading: Abstention in Portugal is not as high as official figures suggest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abstention in Portugal is not as high as official figures suggest<\/h1>\n

Original text from Jornal Econ\u00f3mico<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Polling<\/p>\n

On 28 September 2025, Jornal Econ\u00f3mico highlighted the study \u201cElectoral Abstention in Portugal: Mechanisms, Impacts and Solutions\u201d, published by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation and coordinated by Jos\u00e9 Santana-Pereira (Iscte) and Jo\u00e3o Cancela (NOVA University Lisbon). According to the research, actual turnout in the 2024 and 2025 legislative elections was around 75% and 73%, well above the official figures.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Santana-Pereira explains that so-called \u201ctechnical abstention\u201d now results mainly from emigrants still registered in Portugal who have not updated their address. The study also shows that distrust of politicians, the feeling that voting changes nothing and the perception that parties are all alike are among the main reasons for abstaining.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 recommendations include civic education from primary school, wider use of early mobile voting and a pilot test of voting at 16.<\/p>\n

Read the <\/i>full article in Jornal Econ\u00f3mico<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 28 September 2025, Jornal Econ\u00f3mico highlighted the study \u201cElectoral Abstention in Portugal: Mechanisms, Impacts and Solutions\u201d, published by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation and coordinated by Jos\u00e9 Santana-Pereira (Iscte) and Jo\u00e3o Cancela (NOVA University Lisbon). According to the research, actual turnout in the 2024 and 2025 legislative elections was around 75% and 73%, well above the official figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[407,416,409],"class_list":["post-55790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-press","tag-abstention","tag-electoral-participation","tag-jose-santana-pereira","category-308","description-off"],"yoast_head":"\nAbstention in Portugal is not as high as official data suggest | ODRP-Iscte<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A study coordinated by Jos\u00e9 Santana-Pereira shows that real abstention in Portugal is lower than the official rate, mainly due to registered emigrants.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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