Portuguese voters head to polls to choose new president

Portuguese presidential election kicked off on Sunday morning with a total of some 9.7 million eligible voters to choose a new president for the next five years.

The voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) and to end at 7:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) and the turnout rate in the election is expected to be low.

A record 10 candidates are running for president of Portugal this year and two of them are female.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is the front runner and expected to win the election, according to the latest opinion poll published on Friday.

The poll conducted by Portuguese Catholic University showed Rebelo de Sousa, a veteran politician of Social Democratic Party (PSD), will get 52 percent of votes, while independent Sampaio da Novoa, a former president of Lisbon University, will obtain 22 percent and Maria de Belem, former president of the Socialist Party, only 8 percent.

According to Portugal's Constitution, only a candidate who secures more than 50 percent of votes will be elected president, otherwise the two who get the most votes will contend in a run-off, on Feb. 14 this year.

The 67-year-old Rebelo de Sousa, a law professor graduated from Law School of Lisbon University, is a popular TV commentator and former secretary-general of PSD.

Portuguese president serves five years in a term and can be elected for another. The largely ceremonial president is powered to dissolve the parliament, call a snap election and appoint who wins the election as the country's prime minister.

Incumbent President Anibal Cavaco Silva, 76, was elected president in January 2006 and reelected in 2011. Enditem