Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa's Socialists won an absolute majority to govern solo after calling a snap election on Sunday that also saw huge gains by the far-right, official results showed.

The ruling Socialist Party garnered 117 seats in the 230-seat parliament, up from 108 in the outgoing assembly.

The vote was called in November after Costa's hard-left former Communist and Left Bloc allies joined the right in striking down his minority government's budget.

The two far-left parties paid the price, losing more than a half of their seats, according to exit polls.

After last week's opinion polls, Costa had himself acknowledged that the Portuguese did not want to give him a full majority and said he was prepared to strike alliances with like-minded parties, which is no longer necessary.

"An absolute majority doesn't mean absolute power. It doesn't mean to govern alone. It's an increased responsibility, and it means to govern with and for all Portuguese," Costa said in his victory speech.

Costa, who came to power in 2015 in the aftermath of a 2011-14 debt crisis, has presided over a period of steady economic growth that helped shrink the budget deficit and even eke out a small surplus in 2019 before the pandemic struck. Still, Portugal remains Western Europe's poorest country and relies on EU pandemic recovery funds.

The center-right Social Democrats came a distant second at below 30 percent of the vote, according to provisional results, against the Socialists' around 42 percent.

The far-right Chega emerged as the third-largest parliamentary force, making a big leap from just one seat in the previous legislature to at least 11.

A stable government would bode well for Portugal's access to a 16.6-billion-euro ($18.7 billion) package of EU pandemic recovery aid and its success in channeling funds into projects to boost economic growth.

With more than a tenth of Portugal's 10 million people estimated to be isolating due to COVID-19, the government had allowed infected people to leave isolation and cast ballots in person, and electoral officials donned protection suits in the afternoon to receive them.

Turnout was on track to beat 2019's record-low 49 percent participation.

As in many European countries, infections have spiked in Portugal, although vaccination has kept deaths and hospitalizations lower than in earlier waves.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Portugal's Prime Minister and Socialist Party Secretary General Antonio Costa speaks to the media before the announcement of the results of the general elections in Lisbon, Portugal, January 30, 2022. /Reuters)