Luis Canelas is the PS candidate for Espinho

Luís Canelas was confirmed by the PS council of Espinho as a candidate for the council of that municipality, after a second local vote, following criticism of the first procedure by the district jurisdiction committee of Aveiro.

The second vote took place this Thursday night and reinforced the candidate's initial position, since in the February procedure Luís Canelas obtained only 18 votes in favor compared to the 12 of the competitor Nuno Almeida - which, added to two null votes and four abstentions, resulted in what the district jurisdiction considered a technical tie - and now he obtained 22 votes of support, with only two blank ballots.

“ Support for my candidacy was clearly reinforced, with 91.6% of votes in favor , legitimizing the continuity of a firm, ambitious project that is deeply committed to the future of the municipality of Espinho,” Luís Canelas told Lusa.

When in May the district jurisdiction annulled the candidate's first vote, claiming that the procedure carried out in February had not collected the minimum of 50% of the in-person votes as required by the party's statutes, the person in question filed an appeal, which was also sent to the PS's national counterpart structure.

His argument at the time was that the February vote was, technically, a “designation of a candidate for political office”, under the terms of article 67 of the PS Statutes, and “not an internal election — a distinction expressly provided for in the party’s own statutes and Internal Electoral Regulations”.

Given that, one month after the annulment, both the district and national jurisdictions had yet to issue a definitive opinion on the matter, Luís Canelas opted to reconvene the Espinho municipal committee to repeat the vote this Thursday.

“I took the decision with the aim of unblocking the political impasse that exists following the lack of response from the Aveiro District Jurisdiction Commission and the National Jurisdiction Commission, regarding the appeal presented by the Board of the Municipal Political Commission on May 20, 2025, a situation that created an unjustified blockage to local political dynamics”, he explains.

Luís Canelas proposes, now as head of the list, “ to resume a planned, coordinated path oriented towards the interests of Espinho and the people of Espinho ”.

In addition to this candidacy, there are three other candidates already announced for the Espinho Municipal Council: Ricardo Sousa, who, although indicated as the choice of the local PSD, faces a situation identical to that of Luís Canelas due to differences between the council and the national structure of the party ; Pilar Gomes, from the CDU; and Maria Manuel Cruz, who, being the current mayor on a PS list, will run as an independent.

Luís Canelas was, from January 2023 to February 2025, vice-president in the team of Maria Manuel Cruz, who rose to the top of the executive following the resignation of Miguel Reis in the context of the Vórtex criminal investigation. The mayor, however, withdrew political trust from Canelas and herself disassociated herself from the PS, after being informed that the party's national structure had chosen him as the head of the list.