Portugal’s centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) is poised to win the most votes in the country’s parliamentary election, but fall well short of an outright majority, three exit polls showed.

The polls published after voting closed at 8pm (20:00 GMT) on Sunday by the three main television channels SIC, RTP and TVI showed the AD party in the 27.6 percent-33 percent range, just ahead of the incumbent Socialists.

The polls projected that that all right-wing parties combined, including the far-right Chega, were likely to secure an outright majority.

Chega was likely to win 14 percent -21.6 percent, a large jump from its 7.2 percent in the last election in January 2022.

However, the AD has so far ruled out any agreement with Chega, which could make for an unstable government.

The polls put the Socialist Party in the 24.2 percent to 29.5 percent range.

More to follow…