With 95% of the votes counted, 63-year-old Antonio Jose Seguro had 66%.

António José Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party beat far-right anti-establishment rival André Ventura in a runoff to secure a five-year term as Portugal’s president, according to partial results.

With 95 percent of the votes counted, Seguro, 63, received 66 percent. Ventura trails with 34 percent support, but is still likely to be well ahead of the 22.8 percent his anti-immigration Chega party received in last year’s election. Votes in major cities such as Lisbon and Porto are counted at the end of the year.

Two exit polls showed support for Seguro at 67-73% and Ventura at 27-33%.

Although three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting for a week because of flooding, a series of storms in recent days failed to deter voters from casting ballots, with turnout roughly the same as in the first round on January 18. The delay affects about 37,000 registered voters, or about 0.3% of the total, and is unlikely to affect the overall outcome.

Portugal’s presidency has a largely ceremonial role, but it possesses some key powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament in certain circumstances.

Ventura, 43, who trails Seguro in opinion polls, dismissed the government’s response to violent winds and flooding as “futile” and called for the entire election to be postponed.

However, the authorities rejected the request.

At his final campaign rally on Friday, Seguro accused Ventura of “doing everything to prevent Portuguese people from voting.”

Despite Sunday’s defeat, Ventura, the charismatic former TV sports commentator, can now boast an increase in support that reflects the far-right’s growing influence in Portugal and much of Europe. He is also the first far-right candidate to reach the second round of Portugal’s vote.

At the same time, Seguro cast himself as a “modern moderate” left-wing candidate able to mediate proactively to avoid political crises and defend democratic values. Ventura received support from prominent conservatives after the first round of voting amid concerns about what many saw as his populist, hard-line tendencies.

But Prime Minister Luis Montenegro – whose minority centre-right government must rely on support from the Socialists or the far right to get legislation through parliament – refused to back either candidate in the second round.

While the role is largely ceremonial, the head of state has the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

The new president will succeed outgoing conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in early March.