General Councils

The decree of 16 May 1832 created the Provincial General Councils (Juntas Gerais de Província), which never actually functioned in this archipelago. The law of 16 July 1835 established the District General Councils (Juntas Gerais de Distrito). An official document of 1837 states ‘that in this Province the Council has met only once, in extraordinary session, for a specific and very limited purpose, so that it may truly be said that the first ordinary session of the General Council of this district opens today’. It seems to us that this single extraordinary meeting took place in 1836, and the first ordinary session was held on 15 July 1837. It was presided over by the civil governor, António de Gamboa, and the twelve representatives were present: Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, Dr Alexandre de Oliveira, António Ferreira Nogueira, Francisco Ferreira de Abreu, João Crisóstomo Ferreira Uzel, José Joaquim Fernandes de Sousa, Manuel Joaquim da Costa Andrade, Manuel Joaquim da Trindade, Patrício Malheiro de Melo, Rufino de Carvalho Pereira, Sebastião Joaquim Rodrigues Leal and Vicente de Paula Teixeira. Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos was elected president and Francisco Ferreira de Abreu secretary. The session comprised eighteen meetings, the closing one being held on 25 August 1837.

The first members of the General Council, thirteen in number, were elected in the Council house on 11 October 1835, in the manner laid down in Article 10 of the decree of 18 July of the same year. The administrative codes of 1836 and 1842 did not change the number of representatives on the General Council, but the code of 1878 raised it to 21, and the elected representatives were to choose the District Commission (Comissão Distrital) at their first session. Direct election of the District General Councils was authorised by the code of 1878; the code of 1842 had laid down that these administrative bodies were to be elected by the municipal councils together with the Municipal Boards (Conselhos Municipais).

The administrative codes of 1895 and 1896 confirmed the provisions of the decree of 6 August 1892 abolishing the District General Councils. However, the General Council of Funchal was restored by the decree of 8 August 1901, which applied to this district the special organisation granted to the districts of the Azores by the decree of 2 March 1895, as amended by the law of 12 June 1901. With the abolition of the General Councils, a District Commission remained in existence at the seat of each district. In the mainland districts, the General Councils were not restored until the decree of 13 October 1910.

Under the law of 7 August 1913, the General Council of the autonomous regime is made up of procurators elected directly by the municipalities (concelhos): 7 for each 1st-class municipality, 5 for each 2nd-class municipality and 3 for each 3rd-class municipality. It has an executive committee made up of three procurators.