Portugal Rightist Favored in Today’s Presidential Vote

LISBON —  With the country still exuberant about democratic elections, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, long regarded as the most conservative major politician in revolutionary Portugal, was expected to leave three squabbling and badly divided leftist candidates far behind in today’s first round of voting in the Portuguese presidential elections.

The divisions on the left are so bitter, in fact, that many analysts believe it is unlikely that any candidate can unite the left to defeat Freitas do Amaral in a second round of voting Feb. 16.

Most analysts predicted that Mario Soares, three times the Socialist prime minister and the best known Portuguese political leader outside the country, would eke out a slight lead over two leftist rivals and finish second to face Freitas do Amaral in the runoff. But the race for that second spot seemed so close that no one was making this prediction with conviction.

In a sharp break with the past, all four candidates for president are civilians. For the first time since the Portuguese coup that overturned the half-century-long dictatorship in 1974, no military officer will be president of Portugal. And since dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar used to install military officers as president, the new president will be the first Portuguese civilian head of state in 60 years.

Portugal’s presidency is a strong office, based substantially on the French model. The president serves both as military chief and as chairman of the Council of State, and appoints the prime minister.

In recent years, going to the polls in Portugal has become routine. There have been six parliamentary and three presidential elections since 1974, and Portuguese voters have been pictured as blase and fed up with all that voting. But this seemed far from true during this campaign, which has bristled with excitement and suspense.

Tens of thousands of chanting, flag-waving supporters crammed stadiums and parks in Lisbon during the last two nights of the campaign in scenes reminiscent of rallies that erupted all over Portugal in the early days of democracy.

The vital contest for second place appeared so close that the popular and enigmatic President Antonio Ramalho Eanes, who is trying to carve a permanent niche for himself in Portuguese politics, abandoned his pose as a leader above the electoral fray and went on television Thursday night to endorse his favorite candidate, Francisco Salgado Zenha, a renegade Socialist who also has Communist Party support.

It was not clear whether this hurt Soares or the other leftist candidate, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, an independent who once seemed to have a good chance for the presidency but lost ground heavily during the campaigning.

Freitas do Amaral, 44, has long headed the conservative Social Democratic Center Party.He is expected to win perhaps 40% of the vote in the first round.

Soares, 61, a warm, personable politician who fought the dictatorship for years and wants to crown his career with the presidency, campaigned hard to boost himself as a contender after his Socialists suffered a shattering defeat in October’s parliamentary vote.