Members were informed of the deadline by Luís Marques Guedes, the chair of the parliament’s temporary committee on transparency, after the approval of the new statutes for deputies.


Symbolically, the date coincides with the ‘carnation revolution’ that freed Portugal from dictatorship in 1974, according to the chair of the parliamentary committee charged with reviewing the legislation.


The other bills on political transparency still awaiting approval relate to the regulation of political lobbying and to incompatibilities for holders of political and public office.


Marques Guedes also said that the committee will be extending its work until June to amend other related legislation, such as the statutes for judges and for elected local political officeholders.


The committee on transparency was set up in 2016 to debate and prepare changes to the legal rules governing incompatibilities and impediments for political officeholders and senior public officeholders.


It has also discussed new bills on the monitoring of and punishment for illegal enrichment and on codes of conduct and the public recording of gifts made to political officeholders and senior public officeholders.


Earlier this year it emerged that Portugal had dropped one position on the most recent corruption index, published in January by Transparency International.