São Paulo – The Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty) is accepting the candidacy of those interested in participating in the Council of Representatives of Brazilians Living Abroad (CRBE). The Brazilians who live in other countries may, through consulates in the regions in which they live, register their pre-candidacy to participate in the council. The group should participate as the interlocutor between the Brazilian community in which they live and the Ministry of Foreign Relations. According to the head of the Division of Brazilian Communities Abroad at the Itamaraty, Aloysio Marés Dias Gomide Filho, up to the moment there are already around 40 pre-candidates.
Among the Arab countries, explained Gomide, there are two pre-candidates from Lebanon. There is also one in Africa, one in Australia and several in Europe and the United States. Four councils will be established, one for South and Central America, one for North America and the Caribbean, another for Europe and the last for Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Middle East. Lebanon is in the latter group. Each group should have, according to Gomide, four members, who should be chosen in an election on the Internet by Brazilians living in the region in which they are applying.
The current pre-candidacies are for those interested in showing their names. An official candidacy, however, should take place later on, at a site established specifically for the election. The Itamaraty is working on the tendering of companies specialized in electronic voting to develop the election. A series of cares should be taken for the vote to be safe, including the need for a login and several documents, among others. The pre-candidacies may or not be officialised, according to the candidate’s desire, and new candidates may also participate, even without having registered in advance.
In coming days, the Itamaraty should publish the name of the pre-candidates and information about them on site Brasileiros no Mundo (Brazilians worldwide). Pre-candidacy should be possible up to the opening of the official site for the election, whose date has not yet been defined, but, according to Gomide, that should take place in July or August. The representatives of the council, apart from sending the demands of Brazilian residents in their countries to the Federal Government, should help organise the Brazilians Worldwide Conference in Rio de Janeiro. The first two editions took place in 2008 and 2009, and it should be repeated each year.
On Tuesday (15), president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a bill establishing the principles and guidelines of the government policy for Brazilian communities abroad, establishing the Brazilians Worldwide Conference, defining that they will be annual, and establishing the Council of Representatives of Brazilians Living Abroad. In the first conference, in 2008, four provisional groups of representatives of Brazilian communities abroad were established, each with a correspondent in a region and each with three members. These groups helped organise the second conference, in 2009.
In the last meeting, the council was institutionalised and it was defined that there would be 16 people, four from each region. Gomide explained that there are other councils of Brazilians abroad, the councils of citizens, connected to the consulates of Brazil abroad. They were created in the 1990s and are still in operation.
New
The starting kick for the new council, with more global dimensions and directly linked to the Itamaraty, was given by the General Undersecretariat of Brazilian Communities Abroad, a high-level unit within the Ministry of Foreign Relations, in late 2006. The objective, said Gomide, was for permanent contact with Brazilians abroad. In the first meeting of Brazilians Living Abroad, consolidated minutes were written with the demands of expatriates. According to Gomide, new minutes should not be issued at every conference, but they may be updated.
Closer ties with the Brazilians living abroad had been included in the proposals of the Lula government even before Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as President of the Republic, in 2003. In his 2002 candidacy, the president issued a “Letter to Brazilians abroad”, which spoke of the importance and of the proposals of Brazilian expat communities.
Service
Council of Representatives of Brazilians Living Abroad
Further information: www.brasileirosnomundo.mre.gov.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
