The greatest celebration of democracy has a little problem…

Across the country, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Many phone calls were made, many opinions were gathered, and hours and hours of preparation were spent for what is the greatest of all democratic celebrations.

For those who are no longer involved in politics, August 18th marks the last day on which candidates across the country must submit all documentation to formalize their interest in running in the local elections that will take place on October 12th in Portugal.

The country is organized into 308 municipalities, each of which elects a Mayor, its councilors, and a Municipal Assembly, while the 3,260 parishes elect their President and Parish Assembly. For voters, the only difference lies in the ballot papers: there are three, each in three different colors.

For those involved in politics, and there are many across the country, this is the moment they've worked for four years! It's the moment when the focus shifts from the National Assembly and the government to the citizens and the problems of their lands.

But in this great celebration of democracy, we have a little problem…

The organization of local elections has changed little since April 25th, at a time when there was no internet or mobile communications, when few people had a printer at home, when digital signatures did not exist and when registration was carried out in each Parish Council...

A rough estimate suggests that across the country, files are being submitted that include, roughly speaking, 50,000 candidacy declarations signed by each candidate, 50,000 voter registration certificates issued by parish councils, ranked lists, submission requests, powers of attorney, certificates from the Constitutional Court, and countless other documents. In the end, we're talking about between ten and fifteen trees being cut down just to submit local government candidacies.

But the problem doesn't end there: the State forces candidates to submit voter registration certificates to the court, which the State itself issues; it forces digitally signed documents to be submitted in printed form, avoiding one of the benefits of digital signatures; it forces original signed documents to be submitted, but then there's no way to verify whether the signature is correct...

And anyone who thinks that the bureaucratic process ends after submitting the candidacy is mistaken... that's when the corrections of details begin, because the information contained in the candidacy declaration, voter registration certificate and ordered list are not the same, sometimes because there have been divorces, sometimes because they forgot the house number in the address, sometimes because they abbreviated the full name...

It is necessary and urgent to reform the local government candidacy process!

In this greatest celebration of democracy, in which so many people across the country take to the streets, give their names, and participate, we cannot continue to be tied to an archaic process that prevents candidates from discussing ideas and proposals for their municipalities and parishes and leaves them buried under a pile of paperwork and bureaucracy.