Democracy between elections · proposed internal participation
Popular participation
In Candeia, participation is not limited to election day. Citizen initiatives, petitions, consultations, hearings, submissions and public oversight form a permanent layer of internal governance — without turning every expression of opinion into an automatic institutional decision.
Pre-Foundation · constitutional order not yet promulgatedParticipation mechanisms still depend on activation and implementation.Project constitutional proposal · Portuguese reference text
In brief
Public participation works when a person can discover a process, understand the material, contribute through an accessible channel and later verify whether the Administration responded to the relevant arguments.
How the Constitution structures this subject
Participate without retaliation
Supporting, contesting, organising, petitioning, taking part in consultations and scrutinising power are protected forms of participation.
Citizen agenda with formal consideration
The organic law may require signatures, but the threshold for a citizen legislative initiative may not exceed 2% of the national electorate.
A channel for every person
Every person may petition; the mechanism is not restricted to voters.
Listening before structural decisions
Structural projects, high-impact regulations and relevant national plans must be submitted to consultation unless justified urgency applies.
How it works
The GOV publishes the subject, documents, deadline and status of the process.
The person participates through Candeia OS when an actual process exists; the competent Sistema Candeia module records and processes the submission.
The competent authority groups, examines and records the contributions.
The GOV publishes the report, decision and what changed — without pretending that participation requires approval on the merits.
Limits and safeguards
- Participation does not replace the constitutional competence of the Assembly, Government, a court or an independent authority.
- No contribution may be invented to fill an empty page; figures appear only when real data exists.
- Urgency used to dispense with consultation must be justified; it may not become a routine way to avoid scrutiny.