Antonio Jose Seguro, of Portugal’s centre-left Socialist Party, will head to a presidential election run-off against far-right leader Andre Ventura following a preliminary round of voting, Al Jazeera reported.
Election results on Sunday showed Seguro won 31.1 percent of the vote against Ventura’s 23.5 percent. Liberal pro-business candidate Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo came in a distant third place, with about 16 percent of the votes.
Almost 11 million people were eligible to vote in the election, which had 11 candidates.
As neither candidate passed the 50 percent threshold, Seguro and Ventura will next compete in a presidential run-off on February 8. Portugal has only held a presidential run-off once before, in 1986, since its democratic transition five decades ago.
The February 8 vote will also mark the first time a far-right candidate has advanced to a presidential run-off in Portugal, and it offers Ventura the chance to secure another win for Europe’s burgeoning far-right parties.