Building of the
Camara Municipal
of
Porto
.
Building of the
Camara Municipal
of
Lisbon
.
Building of the
Camara Municipal
of
Rio de Janeiro
.
A
camara municipal
(
Portuguese pronunciation:
[?k?m???
munisi?pal]
, meaning literally
municipal chamber
and often referred as
camara de vereadores
or simply as
camara
) is a type of
municipal governing body
, existing in several countries of the
Community of Portuguese Language Countries
.
In
Portugal
,
Cape Verde
,
Guinea Bissau
and
Timor-Leste
, a
camara municipal
is the
executive body
of a
municipality
. In
Brazil
, it is the
legislature
of a municipality.
Sao Tome and Principe
has similar
camaras distritais
(district chambers), which are the executive bodies of the districts (municipalities).
In all these countries, the members of a
camara
are known as
vereadores
(
aldermen
).
Brazil
[
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]
The Brazilian
camaras municipais
or
camaras de vereadores
have their origin in the municipal administration model inherited from Portugal. However, while the Portuguese
camaras
evolved towards becoming executive bodies, in Brazil they evolved towards becoming the
legislative bodies
of the
municipalities
, especially after the creation of the
prefeituras municipais
(municipal
prefectures
) in the 1930s. In Brazil, the executive municipal power is now vested in the
prefeituras municipais
, each headed by the
prefeito
(
mayor
).
Each
camara
is composed of a number of elected
vereadores
.
Portugal
[
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]
Its members (
vereadores
, aldermen) are elected by the
Hondt method
, serve year-round and are paid.
The president of a Municipal Chamber
is the head of the most-voted list. The
Camara Municipal
has an odd number of aldermen (from five to thirteen), determined by the number of registered voters within the municipality, with the exceptions of
Lisbon
(fixed at 17 aldermen) and
Porto
(15 aldermen).
The term can also refer to the building where the Municipal Chamber offices are located, i.e., the
City Hall
, although it is more properly termed
Pacos do Concelho
(literally, the "Palace of the
Concelho
").
A Camara municipal is an
executive
body of a municipal, a level higher than the
Junta de freguesia
.
The
legislature
equivalent of Camara municipal is the
Assembleia Municipal
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]