Portuguese outgoing PM calls for constitutional amendment to allow new election

Portuguese outgoing prime minister and leader of the Social Democritc Party (PSD) Pedro Passos Coelho called for a constitutional amendment to allow a new election to be held as early as possible to end the country's current political uncertainty, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency on Friday.

"I am completely available to give my support to an extraordinary constitutional amendment to ensure parliament can be dissolved and the Portuguese people called to choose their government," Passos Coelho said late Thursday night at a public meeting at a hotel here.

The coalition led by Passos Coelho and CDS-PP leader Paulo Portas won the most votes in the Oct. 4 election, gaining 107 seats in the 230-seat parliament, but losing an outright majority.

The main opposition Socialist Party (PS), the Left Boc, and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) voted in parliament on Tuesday in favor of a motion rejecting the government's program less than two weeks after the minority government was sworn in.

The move has made the center-right minority government led by Passos Coelho the shortest-lived since 1974.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva has yet to decide whether to keep Passos Coehlo on as caretaker prime minister or empower the PS to form an alternative government with other leftist parties.

The Portuguese constitution does not allow for another election within six months. Endit