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Constituent Cortes of 1820

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Elections

The government installed after the Oporto Revolution, known as the Provisional Junta of the Supreme Government of the Kingdom, decided to convene the Cortes and on September 1, 1820 set up a preparatory commission. On November 22, the Commission published instructions for the election of representatives to the Cortes, which were held in December 1820. The original instructions only provided for representatives from Portugal, ignoring Brazil and provoking great discontent. The instructions were then revised and re-issued in November, establishing the proportional representation that included in the overseas domains and abandoning the traditional division into three orders.

The electoral method chosen by the Commission was closely modelled on the electoral system Spain under the Spanish Constitution of 1812. It involved a complex process of indirect suffrage through the formation of parish, county, and provincial electoral committees. Male citizens over the age of 25 (in some cases over 21 years of age) with a job, a trade or useful occupation, elected an electoral college who, in turn, chose county voters. These then met in the provincial capitals and elected the representatives to the Cortes, with one representative for every 30,000 inhabitants. Representatives were required to be at least 25 years of age. Despite the complexity of the process and inexperience of those operating it, the election was completed on Christmas Day 1820, with deputies elected in most provinces of Portugal. The remainder were elected in the following months.

These electoral criteria had the effect, in Brazil, of transforming the traditional captaincies into provinces. The first Brazilian province to declare its adherence to the Cortes was Pará on 1 January 1821, followed on February 10 by Bahia, Piauí, Maranhão and Pernambuco. Other parts of Brazil followed in due course. Representatives from Sao Paulo, Paraíba, Pará, Espírito Santo, Goiás and Ceará only joined the Cortes in 1822. Representatives from Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Norte, Cisplatina and Rio Grande do Sul did not take their seats in the Cortes, remaining in Brazil in demonstration of support to the regent Dom Pedro. in total 97 representatives and alternates were elected from Brazil.

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