Rebelo de Sousa leads in Portuguese presidential election

Portuguese Social Democratic Party candidate Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa garnered more than 50 percent of the votes in the Portuguese Presidential elections on Sunday, local TV channels reported, citing preliminary results of the elections.

According to the preliminary results released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs Election Administration, Rebelo de Sousa got 57.61 percent of the votes in 1,483 parishes out of 3,092 parishes.

The independent Sampaio of Novoa came second with 19.58 percent of the votes.

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

According to Portugual'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 an run-off, on Feb. 14 for this year.

The 67-year-old Rebelo de Sousa, a law professor who 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 role is powered to dissolve the parliament, call a snap election and appoint who wins the election as the country's prime minister.

The incumbent president Anibal Cavaco Silva, aged 76, was elected president in January 2006 and reelected in 2011.

Source: XINHUA