Local elections begin in Portugal

Portuguese voters have begun casting their ballots in local elections, which are predicted to result in heavy losses for Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s conservatives.

The polling stations opened on Sunday morning and involve mayors and city councils in 308 municipalities as well as assemblies of representatives in 3,091 smaller administrative units.

Latest opinion polls have shown that Coelho’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) was likely to lose support in most large cities.

Main opposition leader and head of the Socialist party Antonio Jose Seguro has called on the Portuguese people to use the elections to “give a voice to indignation” and spell out the “will of change in this country.”

The elections come two weeks before the government is to present its budget proposal for 2014, which will include new spending cuts to an amount of 3.3 billion euros (about $4.5 billion).

The new cuts are required by the country’s creditors – the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund – which granted Portugal an emergency loan worth 78 billion euros (102 billion US dollars) after the country’s borrowing costs soared to unsustainable levels in 2011.

The Portuguese government has imposed a series of deeply unpopular austerity measures to meet the conditions of the international bailout.

Critics say the government’s cuts and tax hikes have caused the record high unemployment rate and the two-and-half year recession, leading to distress to the Portuguese population.

The country has seen a rising number of people who are turning to food banks for help after a number of newly unemployed have asked for assistance.

Furthermore, analysts say Portugal will likely need further financial assistance as the austerity measures have hit the country so hard that it is making it very difficult for the economy to recover.