This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Brazil
The municipalities of Brazil (named Município in Portuguese) are administrative divisions of the states of Brazil. At present, Brazil has 5,564 municipalities, making the average municipality population 34,361. The average state in Brazil has 214 municipalities (note that Roraima - the lesser subdivided State - has 15 municipalities and Minas Gerais - the most subdivided State - has 853). The Federal District (Distrito Federal), where Brasília (the national capital) is located, cannot be divided in municipalities (according the Brazilian Constitution, the Federal District absorbs the constitutional and legal powers, attributions and obligations of States and municipalities).
The 1988 Brazilian Constitution considers the municipalities as part of the Federation and they are not simply dependent subsidivions of the States.
Each municipality has an autonomous local government (Poder Executivo - unofficially called Prefeitura), comprising a mayor (named Prefeito), directly elected by the people for four years and a legislative body (Poder Legislativo or Câmara Municipal), also elected directly by their people. These elections take place atr the same time all over the country (the last local election was in 2008). Each Municipality has the constitutional power to approve their own laws and collects taxes and also receives funds from the State and Union government. However, municipal governments have no judicial power, and courts are only organised at the State or Union level. A subdivision of the State judiciary, or comarca, can either correspond to an individual municipality or encompass several municipalities.
The Seat of the municipality administration is denominated City (cidade), with no consideration from the law about the population, area ou facilities. The city has the same name of the Municipality. Municiplaties can be subdivided, only for administrative porposes, in Districts (normally, new Municipalities are formed from these Districts). Other populated sites are named vila or povoado, but with no legal effects or regulation.
Municipalities can be split or merged to form new municipalities within the borders of the State, if the people of the involved municipalities express a desire to do so in a plebiscite. However, these must abide by the Federal Constitution, and forming exclaves or seceding from the State or Union is expressly forbidden.
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