Dear Carvoeiro resident,

If you have a portuguese residência and live in the Carvoeiro area, you can do your part to improve our town.

I recently spoke to the president of the Junta de Freguesia in Carvoeiro and he explained to me, that although he is making a great effort to improve the aspect of the town (Flowerbeds, etc) he is severly handicapped by the shrinking number of registered voters in his freguesia. The funds that the state places at his disposal is directly linked to the number of registered voters in his district.

So if you hold a residência and a proof of residence (electricity bill), take a few minutes and head down to the Junta de Freguesia and register yourself as a voter. You do not have to vote in elections if you do not want to, but that way the Junta will be receiving more funds to invest in beautification.

Hi Gambrinus, do you need to be resident in the area or just need to be a property owner? Dave.

Hi Dj,

Being a property owner does not automatically make you resident.

What you need is the green residência card, issued to foreigners by the Serviço de Estrangeiros stating that Portugal is your country of residence. You would get this if you gave up residence in your home country and applied for it in Portugal.

ok, will pop in next time we are passing and register!

Just read your Intermaché post G, about voting, good idea. Maybe you should let anyone interested know how EASY it is to get a residencia from the servico de estrangeiros

Pinkie,

The last thing I want to ask people is to apply for a residência (I know, I have been there, done that and bought about a dozen t-shirts ).

This is just intended for those who already have one or intend to apply for one anyway.

great post G.

A good point well made G.

AFPOP have been plugging the need to register for voting but their accent has been on using the vote to press for action to reflect the views of ex pats. Your argument is more persuasive as far as I am concerned and my wife and I will make sure that we register.

It might be a good idea to e-mail your original message to AFPOP so that they could publish it as another reason to register.