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Madam Speaker

Excellency,

Having enacted, to be published as legislation, Parliamentary Decree No. 110/XII, - “Administrative Reorganization of the Parish Territories” I decided to address Parliament, as foreseen under item d) of article No. 133 of the Constitution, the following message:

This law covers a great change in the territorial structure of the parishes, unequalled in our Country in the last 150 years. It arises in compliance with the provisions of Law No. 22/2012, dated 30 May, that settles the administrative reorganization of the parish territories and following the commitments assumed by the Portuguese Government in the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality, subscribed on 17 May 2011, to proceed with a significant reduction in local authorities to come into force in the next electoral cycle.

Also taken into consideration was the fact that the creation, extinction and modification of local authorities are fully and totally reserved to Parliament’s legislative competence.

The alterations now consecrated in this bill and respective attachments, and the creation of new parishes, either through aggregation or through changes in territorial limits, carried implications in more than two hundred municipalities and reduce the number of parishes by more than one thousand.

In the face of this profound change in the Country’s territorial redevelopment, with implications at many diverse levels – and, specifically, in the organization of the electoral process - , I consider that all the political, legislative and administrative measures should be taken with utmost urgency, in order that the local authority elections to be held between September and October of this year, are carried out in normal terms and with democratic transparency, ensuring both the exercise of voting rights and of citizens’ eligibility in the terms legally in force, and the full genuineness of the electoral results.

In this context, it is important to realize that, in addition to the political representation and the service of proximity to the public they provide, parishes are the central administrative units on which is based the territorial organization of the electoral census.

It is thus imperative that the adapting of the electoral census to the now approved administrative reorganization should be timely carried out and that the electors have available, in due time, information concerning the parish where they should vote and the respective elector number, in order that the problems arisen in the early past, namely in the presidential elections, are not repeated.

On another hand, consideration should be given to the delays stipulated in Organic Law No. 1/2001, dated 14 August, particularly the provisions of §2 of its article No. 12, that determines: “For the purpose of general elections the number of mandates of each local authority body shall be defined in line with the results of the electoral census, obtained from the central electoral census data base and published by the Ministry of Internal Administration in the Government Gazette 120 days prior to the term of the mandate:”

It should also be referred that the County Councils and Parish Councils have their own competences in the organization of the electoral act and that their support for this process, at a time when the layout of the electoral units is going through a deep change, is immensely important.

Having in mind the above referred circumstances, and others that Parliament, Government and Administration may come to consider relevant and deserving of special regard, I reiterate my understanding that all adequate measures should be taken to ensure the best possible organization of the electoral act, thus guaranteeing the exercise of the constitutionally consecrated rights and full compliance with democratic rules.

With highest regards,

Palace of Belém, 16 January 2013

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

Aníbal Cavaco Silva