Under Portuguese law, anyone whose movements are restricted by order of a judge still has the right to cast their vote in elections; Sócrates could thus go to a polling station accompanied by police, who are currently guarding his house. However, armed escorts are not allowed within 100 metres of a polling station, unless the presiding officer specifically requests it.


"José Sócrates will of course exercise this right of his, [which is] guaranteed by the laws and by the Constitution, and so will not seek any authorisation, [instead] limiting himself, if the case may be, to transmitting the relevant information," the lawyers, João Araújo and Pedro Delille said in a statement sent to media organisations.


They will not, they added, allow that "the exercise of his civil right be turned by whomever it may be into a spectacle of public humiliation of him to the detriment of the Socialist Party."


Sócrates was transferred to house arrest on 5 September, with no obligation to wear an electronic tag, after nine and a half months in prison on remand. He has denied involvement in any criminal activity.


Portugal's National Elections Commission recently confirmed that it knows of at least one case in which a judge did not authorise a man who was under house arrest to leave it in order to vote. It said it expected that Carlos Alexandre, the judge overseeing the case involving Sócrates, would authorise him to go to the polling station.


However, the former prime minister's lawyers also said that it was possible that their client would be released from house arrest before the election.