The mayors and councilors elected in October 2024 take office in their respective positions this Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
According to the statistics page of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), there will be 5,543 mayors, 5,543 vice-mayors and 58,072 councilors sworn in for four-year terms.
Of the total of 5,543 mayors and vice-mayors who took office, 2,466 were re-elected candidates and the rest (3,077) are in their first term as head of the local Executive branch.
This Monday (30), the TSE database registered another 14 municipalities with the election result sub judice and another three with annulled status. In a note to Brazil Agencythe TSE states that “this data is updated daily and may change depending on the procedural outcome and the publication of updates.”
It is also worth remembering that there is no inauguration in the Federal District because the federative unit does not have municipal elections. The 1988 Federal Constitution prohibits the division of the DF into municipalities.
Mayors’ responsibilities
The mayor or sworn mayor is the head of the municipal Executive Branch, therefore, responsible for the management of the municipality. The mayor’s term lasts four years, with the possibility of re-election for another four years.
During this period, those occupying the positions must manage the municipality’s financial resources (collect, administer and apply taxes in the best way); plan and carry out local improvements, develop the city’s social functions and ensure the well-being of its inhabitants; politically mediate with other spheres of power, always with the aim of benefiting the local population, among other functions that promote local development.
The president of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), Paulo Ziulkoski, highlights what the priorities should be when exercising public functions. “It is necessary to honor the mandate that the population gave you at the polls, face difficulties and always conduct the administration under a model of public governance that puts the real needs of the community first.” Ziulkoski stresses to municipal managers that it is important to forget the ideological clashes of the election. “Govern for everyone and with everyone who wants to help their municipality progress.”
Councilor responsibilities
The terms of office of councilors, also lasting four years, do not have a defined number of possibilities for re-election. This group of parliamentarians works in municipal chambers, also called council chambers. The total number of vacancies for each chamber depends on the number of inhabitants of the municipality, according to item IV of article 29 of the Federal Constitution.
The functions of the municipal Legislative branch are subdivided into four main responsibilities:
· legislative: proposition, analysis, discussion and voting on municipal laws and management of some taxes;
· monitors the actions of the municipal administration in compliance with laws and the public budget;
· advice to the Executive: support and discussion about public policies to be implemented through the Multi-Year Plan, the Annual Budget Law (LOA) and the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO).
· judgmental: assessment of public accounts of administrators and investigation of political-administrative infractions committed by the mayor and the councilors themselves.
Calendar
The electoral courts in the states held diploma ceremonies for those elected to the positions of mayor, vice-mayor and councilors until December 19th. The solemn acts marked the end of the 2024 electoral process and enabled elected men and women to assume and exercise their mandates from the first day of 2025, for four years.
Ceremonies take place across the country on January 1st of the year following the election, as determined by the Federal Constitution of 1988, in chapter IV, in section III, which deals with municipalities.
However, only for the positions of president of the Republic, vice-president, in addition to governors and vice-governors, the inauguration date will be changed from 2027, according to the Constitutional Amendment 111/2021. These changes to the inauguration date do not include mayors.
The next president and vice-president of the Republic will take office on January 5, 2027, while governors and vice-governors will begin their mandate on January 6. The changes will only be applied from the 2026 elections onwards.
Before the current Federal Constitution, the president and governors were sworn in on March 15th.
