India, Jan. 4 -- A record number of 11 candidates in Portugal's upcoming presidential election kicked off their campaigns on Sunday. The official two-week campaign period preceding the Jan. 18 election will see the contenders competing to capture voters' support. However, the broad field makes it unlikely that any candidate will capture more than 50 per cent of the vote, leaving the two top candidates to compete in a runoff ballot on Feb. 8.

Among the frontrunners, according to recent opinion polls, are the candidates from the country's two main parties that have alternated in power for the past 50 years: Luis Marques Mendes from the centre-right Social Democratic Party, currently in Government, and Antonio Jose Seguro of the centre-left...