PORTUGAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 24 January 2021 ODIHR Election Expert Team Report

The Constitution protects the freedoms of expression and of the press, envisages equitable coverage of contestants in election campaigns, and contains provisions meant to prevent the concentration of media ownership and to guarantee the independence of public broadcasters. [...] The president, who represents the Portuguese Republic, has certain significant powers, including the discretionary power to dismiss the government, to dissolve the parliament, and to veto legislation, and is the supreme commander of the armed forces.2 Other competences of the president include submitting issues of national interest to a referendum, declaring a state of emergency, granting pardons. [...] Presidential elections are primarily regulated by the 1976 Constitution and the 1976 Law on the Election of the President of the Republic (LEPR), last amended on 11 November 2020.8 Other relevant laws include the Law on the National Election Commission, on the voter register, on out-of-country voting, on political parties, on funding political parties and campaigns, on the right of assembly, on th. [...] The 2018 amendments augmented the oversight powers of the EPFA with the right to issue sanctions, mandated the CC as the appeal body for the EPFA decisions on legal compliance of the accounts of political parties and electoral campaigns, and introduced an obligation for the CC to publish its decisions on these matters, in line with a prior ODIHR recommendation. [...] In 2018, the parliament increased the CC annual budget by EUR 1.169 million, which was disbursed to the EPFA.66 The latter informed the ODIHR EET that it could not fully capitalize on the budget increase as, having no administrative and financial autonomy from the CC, the EPFA was unable to manage the budget and thus commit the money for additional human resources.67 The EPFA president assessed th.