Group Is Elected for City Councilor 'Collective Mandate' in Goiás

10/13/2016 - 14h23

The image of only one candidate appeared on the screen of the electronic ballot box, but when voting for number 19.111 in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, in the countryside of the Brazilian state of Goiás, voters "elected" five people.

The group is led by lawyer João Yuji, 31, whose name was shown in the ballot box, and promises a "collective mandate" in the Chamber of Councilors.

With five people, whose ages vary from 28 to 45, the group wants to transform representative democracy into "participatory" democracy.

Unlike other experiences of collective mandates in the country, in which a city councilor is guided by an advisory body, all five people in the group promise to attend the events in the Chamber of Councilors, debate on votes and make decisions collectively.

Also, they want to waiver the R$ 5.000 salary city councilors earn and donate it to help the community, investing in cleaning task forces, hospital supplies, public internet connections, among other projects.

The group says it does not want to be welfarist but intends to "always invest in something common," and, if possible, administrated by the people of the community themselves.

"We are five, but we want to be fifty," says Ivan Anjo Diniz, 45, one of the members of the group elected - Diniz is a poet, musician and the owner of a small hotel in the city.

The group received 148 votes of the total 4.463 voters. The number was enough to obtain the last of the nine positions in the city's Chamber of Councilors.
The campaign was called "Collective Mandate" - although officially the candidate registered in the Judiciary Branch to Supervise Elections was Yuji, who had run in the previous election for city councilor, totaling 16 votes.

Yuji is a lawyer and a member of the National Labor Party (PTN). His party accepted the idea of the collective mandate but not all the members of the group say they are aligned with the party's ideology.

They say they would prefer to act more pragmatically, intend to "transform the system from the inside" and subvert the current logic of politics.

The group says it believes in working beyond the political party system and is ideologically aligned with eco federalism which defends, among other principles, individual freedom and decentralization of power.

The agreement for the mandate was made official at a notary public. The document contains the rules to include or exclude members, and establishes that all its members must raise their hands during a voting to signal a "yes" vote. It also establishes five areas of action: the judicial/legislative area; culture and environment; education; tourism and trade.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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	Divulgação
	The group promises a "collective mandate" in the Chamber of Councilors