A Câmara Municipal (ˈkɐmɐɾɐ munisiˈpaɫ, literally, Municipal Chamber, is the executive body of a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and its former colonies of Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

 and Guinea Bissau.

Portugal

Its members (vereadores, aldermen) are elected by the Hondt method, serve year-round and are paid. The president of a Municipal Chamber

President of the Municipal Chamber

President of the Municipal Chamber, or Presidente da Câmara Municipal, in Portuguese, is the title of the Mayor, in Portugal and other Portuguese speaking countries. In Brazil, the title is "Prefect", or Prefeito....

 is the head of the most-voted list. The Câmara Municipal has an odd number of aldermen (from five to thirteen), determined by the number of registered voters within the municipality, with the exceptions of Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 (fixed at 17 aldermen) and Porto (15 aldermen).

Each Municipal Chamber has a council, composed of representatives from a variety of organizations, which serve as a consultative body. .

The term can also refer to the building where the Municipal Chamber offices are located, i.e., the City Hall

City hall

In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...

.

See also

• Assembleia Municipal
  Assembleia Municipal
  An Assembleia Municipal governs a municipality in Portugal. Part of the assembly's members are elected every four years among candidate lists by the Hondt method, simulteanously with the election of the Câmara Municipal; the remainder member are the presidents of parish boards that compose the...
  
  
• List of municipalities of Portugal
• Portuguese local election, 2005
  Portuguese local election, 2005
  The Portuguese local election of 2005 took place on October 9. The election consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is elected mayor, another election for the Municipal Assembly and a last one for the...