Rightists seek mandate

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 6

Rightists seek mandate

NZPA-Reuter Lisbon Portugal’s seven million voters went to the polls yesterday to decide whether the ruling Democratic Alliance can have a four-year mandate to move the country to the Right. If the Right wins it promises to remove the Leftist slant from the Constitution of 1976, abolish the military’s say in politics and throw! most of the economy open to private enterprise in what it is calling the fourth Portuguese republic. The first Republic was founded 70 years ago yesterday when the last king, Manuel 11, fled into exile.

The second was the Rightist dictatorship overthrown by the 1974 revolution, and the present regime is the third Republic. The tiny Monarchist Party is part of the Democratic Alliance, while the main Opposition party, the Socialists, have formed a republican front with their allies to fight the elections; The poll will return a 250seat Parliament, as well as two regional assemblies in the autonomous Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Azores. . ' ’

Voters will be passing verdict oh nine months rule by the only Right-wing Government since the 1974 revo-

lution and on the Prime Minister (Dr Francisco Sa Carneiro), whose private life has been the main target to the Left in the election campaign. Except in the unlikely event of a landslide victory for the Left, the Democratic Alliance will remain the largest force in Parliament even if it loses the six-seat majority won in last December’s elections. The Right has said that the only alternative to- a Democratic Alliance ' majority is chaos because the Alliance would refuse to form a coalition with any other party.