Seven candidates for the presidency of municipal authorities in Portugal, two of which are in the Algarve, have been denied the right to run for office by district courts.
The courts considered the politicians to be ineligible for the coming elections because of a law which restricts the number of terms a holder of office can carry out as leader.
Francisco Amaral, running for the city hall in Castro Marim after five terms at the Alcoutim Câmara, and José Estevens, candidate to Tavira municipality after four terms in Castro Marim, are the Algarve PSD politicians who have been suspended from the forthcoming local elections in September.Álvaro Amaro (Guarda), Vítor Proença (Alcácer do Sal), Fernando Costa (Loures), Jorge Pulido Valente (Beja) and João Rocha (Beja) are the remaining politicians who complete the list of rejected candidates for mayoral positions.
Luís Filipe Menezes (Porto), Fernando Seara (Lisboa), Carlos Pinto de Sá (Évora), Moita Flores (Oeiras) and Ribau Esteves (Aveiro) have been allowed to continue their campaigns, despite seeing their applications contested by the opposition.
The constitutional court will now be analysing these cases and will be making its final decision in the coming days.
