TRE-RS President Maria de Lourdes Galvão Braccini de Gonzalez urges voting in Uruguaiana

On Monday, July 13 2026, the president of Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul Regional Electoral Court, Judge Maria de Lourdes Galvão Braccini de Gonzalez, took part in an institutional ceremony in Uruguaiana aimed at encouraging voter turnout and combating electoral abstention. The event, organized by the state’s electoral justice, highlighted that the average abstention rate in the 2024 municipal elections across Rio Grande do Sul was 23.69%, a figure the judge said weakens local representation.

Judge Galvão Braccini warned that “silence in the ballot box has direct consequences for every neighbourhood and family,” and called for a joint effort to increase participation among young people, the elderly, residents of interior municipalities and other vulnerable groups. The ceremony gathered representatives from the judiciary, the public prosecutor’s office, the public defender’s office, the Brazilian Bar Association, the municipal government and the local legislative school, underscoring a broad societal push to strengthen democracy in the region.