Parliament has been dissolved ahead of the ballot, raising the question of how to pass the legislation required to alter voting procedures.
Authorities in Portugal are wrestling with a conundrum: how to hold a general election scheduled for Jan. 30 amid a surge in COVID-19 cases that is confining hundreds of thousands of potential voters to their homes, AP reports.
Around 400,000 people are currently in isolation in the country of 10.3 million, and political leaders said Wednesday they are trying to figure out how to organize the ballot.
Portugal has officially reported between 20,000-30,000 new infections a day recently. The highly infectious omicron variant and increased testing due to the requirement to show a negative test to enter restaurants and sports events, among other venues, are blamed for the record numbers.
Officials are considering waiving isolation rules so that people can vote, or reducing isolation periods, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.
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