This blog is closing, our wrap of the night is here:
Summary of the evening
Portugal held a snap general election today.
The vote was triggered by the socialist prime minister, António Costa, resigning in November after an investigation was launched into alleged illegalities in his administration’s handling of large green investment projects.
The centre-right Democratic Alliance – an electoral platform made up of the large Social Democratic party (PSD) and two smaller conservative parties – took a lead in early exit polls.
As results came in, the gap between the centre-right alliance and the Socialist party narrowed, putting the centre-right and centre-left neck and neck, though the centre-right alliance maintained a small lead.
The far-right Chega party of André Ventura saw a huge surge, raising the prospect that it could play a key role in the formation of a new centre-right administration.
Figures from far-right parties in France, Spain, Germany and Hungary congratulated Chega on its performance.
Although the centre-right leader Luís Montenegro has explicitly ruled out any deals with Chega because of what he calls Ventura’s “often xenophobic, racist, populist and excessively demagogic” views, he is now likely to come under considerable pressure from his own party to do so to help the PSD into government.
A small portion of votes has yet to be counted and will be tallied over the next hours.
Updated
