Portugal will elect the fourth president in its democratic history on Sunday. The following are profiles of three leading candidates.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, candidate for a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Popular Party, led the latest polls with a 52-percent support and was expected to win the presidency.

Born in July 1939 in Loule, Cavaco Silva entered the Institute of Economic and Financial Studies in Lisbon before studying in the United Kingdom. He joined the PSD in 1974.

Cavaco Silva became director of research at the Bank of Lisbon in 1977, then Planning and Finance Minister from 1980 to 1981. He served as the prime minister of Portugal from 1985 to 1995.

Cavaco Silva's promise to help solve an economic crisis and revive the stagnant economy have helped him maintain a strong lead in opinion polls in recent months.

The vice speaker of parliament, Manuel Alegre, was in second place with up to 20.6 percent of support.

Alegre, 69, is writer and socialist lawmaker. He won the Pessoa prize in 1999 for his verse.

As a member of Portugal's Communist Party, he fought in Angola and Algeria in 1960's. He returned to Portugal and founded the Socialist Party in 1974 before the ouster of Marcelo Caetano's military government.

Alegre's campaign has drawn votes away from Mario Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, who has served as president twice in the past and split the left-wing votes.

Soares, candidate for the Socialist Party and the former president, trailed in third place with 14 percent in support.

Soares, born on Dec. 17, 1924, in Lisbon, studied at universities in Lisbon and Paris before becoming an executive member of the Social Democratic Action Party from 1952 to 1960.

He returned home in 1974 after an exile of four years following the collapse of military leadership and became foreign minister from 1974 to 1975.

After a long career at the heart of government, he was elected the country's president in 1986 and served for two five-year terms.

Source: Xinhua