Portuguese Prepare For Presidential Election

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28604, 5 June 1958, Page 16

Portuguese Prepare For Presidential Election

[By

LUIS TEIVES

LISBON. Portuguese are preparing for the seven yearly election of a new President on June 8.

The present President, 64-year-year-old General Francisco Graveiro Lopes, was elected unopposed on July 22, 1951, after the only opposition candidate, Admiral Manuel Quintao Meireles, had withdrawn his candidature only three days before polling day. Admiral Meireles alleged that the election would not be free and accused the Government of not taking adequate measures to ensure the proper control of voting.

Although, at the end of April, no official statement had been made, it was considered in usually well-informed circles that President Lopes would again be the official Government candidate. The Opposition intends to contest the election. But it is divided. While one group has decided to boycott the election, another has nominated as its candidate General Humberto Delgado, the 52-year-old Director-General of Civil Aviation, former Military Attache in Washington, and Portugal’s representative at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He will stand as an independent candidate.

A third Opposition group has nominated as its candidate Dr. Ari indo Vicente, a 52-year-old Lisbon lawyer. The group which is boycotting the election, known as the Democratic Social Directory and comprises traditional oppositionists like Dr. Jaime Cortesao, a leading Portuguese historian; and Vice-Admiral Jose Mendes Cabecadas, led the revolution which set up the present regime and who was the first Prime Minister of the regime until he was overthrown in a coup d’etat by Marshal Gomes da Costa. It has distributed to the press copies of a memorandum which it sent to the Prime Minister, Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, on April 8, and to President Lopes on April -9, informing them that its members had decided not to take part in the election because they were not satisfied with the Government’s reply to their request for the guarantees which they deemed necessary to ensure a free election.

The request, made in a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister on March 18, included a demand for freedom in pre-elec-toral activities, freedom of meeting, lifting of the press censorship, and a, tighter control over the voting than that provided for by present legislation. The text of the Prime Minister’s reply was not disclosed, but references made to it in the. second memorandum indicate that the Government signified its intention of adhering to the present electoral law.

If this group had taken part in the coming Presidential election its candidate was to have been the 77-year-old retired Admiral Manuel Quintao Meireles, the man who withdrew three days before the date fixed for polling in the last Presidential election. The opposition group which supports General Humberto Delgado describes itself as independent, stressing that some of its members Were independent candidates in the Oporto constituency in the last General Election, held on November 3, 1957.

In a manifesto, members of this group state that they have chosen General Humberto Delgado as an independent candidate because “only a Portuguese who stands apart from groups or factions and who can be responsible to the country as an impartial referee can, in the present political situation created by 32 years of suppression of public liberties, can find a national solution to the political problem of the country.” The group supporting Dr. Arlindo Vicente describes itself as the Democratic opposition. It is a dissident group from the Democratic Social Directory which is byocotting the election.

Under the Portuguese constitution, candidatures for the Presidency of the Republic do not have to be submitted to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice until the third Saturday before the election day—this year, May 24. In the following 48 hours, the President of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice presents the

names of the condidates to the Council of State, whose duty it is to pronounce upon the “political fitness” of the candidates to become President of the Republic.

Candidates must be over 35 years of age, in possession of full civil and political rights and always have had the Portuguese nationality. Under the Constitution, they must also “offer guarantees of respect and fidelity towards the fundamental principles of the political and social order established by the Constitution.”

Relatives of the Kings of Portugal up to the sixth degree are excluded from the right to stand as candidates for the Presidency of the Republic. The decision of the Council of State will be transmitted to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice at any time up to the last Saturday but one before the election, that is, May 31. The President of the Supreme Tribunal as soon as he receives this report will summon a plenary session to pronounce the final judgment on the eligibility of the candidates. The Council of State is composed of the following members: the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the National Assembly, the Chairman of the Corporative Chamber (the Upper House of the Portuguese Parliament), the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, the Procurator General of the Republic, and 10 public men of outstanding ability appointed by the President of the Republic.

The Constitution contains no provision concerning the duration of the Presidential election campaign but, following procedure adopted on previous occasions, it it expected that the Government will fix the campaign to take place during the 30 days ending 48 hours before the election. In that case it will start on May 6 and last until June 6.

It is expected that, as on previous occasions, press censorship will be lifted or at least considerably relaxed during the election campaign. The name of the official candidate, chosen by the Government, will probably be announced juSt before the election campaign starts.—(Reuter.)