Voting for Azorean Diaspora Council runs until Saturday - Communication

Secretaria Regional dos Assuntos Parlamentares e Comunidades

The election of the new Azorean Diaspora Advisers is already underway and runs until Saturday, May 24. During this period, voting will take place solely online, via the Azoreans in the World platform - https://acorianosnomundo.azores.gov.pt/.

This process is promoted by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities. It aims to elect 19 representatives of the Azorean diaspora, distributed among the regions with the largest presence of Azorean communities: Bermuda (one), the United States of America (five), Canada (five), Brazil (five), Uruguay (one), national territory outside the Autonomous Region of the Azores (one) and the rest of the world (one), who will make up the Azorean Diaspora Council for a four-year term, 2025-2029.

The candidates are as follows: for Bermuda - Richard George da Silva Ambrósio; for Brazil, Rio de Janeiro area - Hugo Desio Ormonde Rocha and Marcos Godinho Borba, Rio Grande do Sul area - Alexsander Borges Ribeiro and Regis Albino Marques Gomes, Santa Catarina area - Lucas Vinicius de Oliveira, Marcos Henrique Oliveira Pinheiro, André Arthur Dutra and Ronaldo Cardinal da Fontoura, São Paulo area - Luís Carlos Medeiros and António Tavares Arruda, and Remaining States - Ivison Xavier Duarte, Vânia Mendes Ramos da Silva, Guilherme Fanchin, José Roberto Bezerra de Medeiros and Giuliano Alves de Sousa; for Canada, British Columbia area - Esmeralda de Jesus Correia Cabral,  Manitoba area - Paulo Jorge de Melo Pimentel Cabral, Ontario area - Matthew Jay Fidalgo Correia and Suzanne Maria Cunha, and Remaining Provinces and Territories - Carlos Eduardo Boiteux de Almeida; for the United States of America, California area - Zeto Nuno Melo Carvalho, Massachusetts area - Danny Romão de Melo, and Remaining States - David Rebelo Pimentel and Katherine Sousa Soares; for Uruguay - Sofía Lilí Quintana Ruiz; for Mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Region of Madeira - Rui Manuel de Medeiros Melo Silva and Fernando Melo de Souza; and for the Rest of the World - Tiago Augusto Garcia Domingues.

The Azoreans in the World platform allows all Azoreans living outside the Azores archipelago to register in this platform, giving individuals the chance to run for advisory positions, vote, and elect representatives from their local area.

The submission phase took place between April 1 and 10, followed by the validation of the electoral lists and candidates, whose names were released on April 15. This date also marked the beginning of the electoral campaign. During the campaign period, all Azoreans living in the diaspora who have validated their registration on the platform by May 18 can vote. Voting is entirely digital, safe and accessible from anywhere in the world, allowing each voter to vote only once.

After voting has closed, the results will be finalised and validated by the Electoral Commission and then approved by the Regional Government. In the event of a tie in a given geographical area, a second round will be held between the tied candidates, with voting taking place between May 28 and 30, 2025.

The Azorean Diaspora Council was founded in 2019 to ensure the participation, collaboration and consultation of those who contribute or intend to contribute to the Azores' development project, through debates and the issuing of opinions, suggestions and proposals.

All the stages of this process are available on the Azoreans in the World platform, via the link https://acorianosnomundo.azores.gov.pt/.