Portuguese presidential election to be held on Jan. 24

The Portuguese presidential election is to be held on Jan. 24 next year, the presidential palace announced in a statement on Thursday.

If no candidates obtain a majority vote, a second round of elections will be held on Feb. 14 between only the two candidates who have secured the most votes in the first round.

The newly-elected president is to be sworn in March 9, the last day of current President Anibal Cavaco Silva's office.

The election campaign begins on Jan. 10.

Cavaco Silva cannot run for the presidency as he has been in the post for two consecutive terms since 2006.

Portugal is undergoing political uncertainty as the center-right minority government was ousted in a parliamentary vote of motion by main opposition Socialist Party (PS) and its leftist alliance only 11 days after it was sworn in on Oct. 30.

The coalition led by leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and CDS-People's Party leader Paulo Portas won most votes in the Oct. 4 election, gaining 107 seats in the 230-seat parliament, but lost an outright majority.

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

However, Cavaco Silva fears that a new left-wing government led by PS leader Antonio Costa would derail the slow economic recovery in the country because of the party's anti-austerity and anti-European stance.

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