Ombudsman’s Office welcomes increased citizen participation in the Guimarães Municipal Assembly after amendment to the Rules of Procedure

The Ombudsman’s Office welcomes the recent amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the Guimarães Municipal Assembly, which expands citizens’ participation in all sessions of the body, including extraordinary ones. This amendment was approved on 27 September 2024, following an intervention by the Ombudsman’s Office, prompted by a complaint questioning the failure to hold a period for the public to speak at extraordinary sessions of the Assembly, a practice justified at the time by the previous rules.

The Ombudsman emphasised the importance of citizens’ fundamental right to participate in the affairs of local authorities and recommended that all sessions of the Municipal Assembly, whether ordinary or extraordinary, should include a period for public intervention. In addition, it suggested removing the prohibition that prevented the public from speaking on the topics included on the agenda of the sessions, a restriction that was also included in the old rules of procedure.

The Ombudsman’s recommendations were accepted and the amendment to the Rules of Procedure was unanimously approved at the session on 27 September. With the new wording, now in force, citizens can now intervene in all Assembly sessions and discuss the items on the agenda, reinforcing democratic participation and transparency in the body’s decisions.

To read the letter sent by the Ombudsman’s Office to the Guimarães Municipal Assembly, click here [in Portuguese only].