Portugal’s centre-right party narrowly won the election but has little chance of forming a majority government.
Democratic Union leader Luis Montenegro told his supporters that although the margin of victory was far from convincing, Portuguese people had voted for change.
Both major parties received approximately 29% of the vote.
Only the right-wing extremist Chega was able to achieve clear success.
Five years after entering Portuguese politics, former soccer pundit Andre Ventura’s party won 18% of the vote, giving him 48 seats in the 230-member parliament.
Political commentators say Portugal faces its most divided parliament since the end of the dictatorship half a century ago.
On Sunday, four months after Socialist Prime Minister António Costa resigned on corruption charges, 10 million Portuguese people lost their chance to vote in early elections, although he was never named as a suspect.
Portuguese television viewers were told late on Sunday night that there was a “possible draw” between the Socialist Party (PS) and the centre-right Democratic Union, with only four seats left to be announced outside of Portugal.
It was Mr Costa who warned that this could be the case. It must be so.