Brasília - With the objective of making people aware of the importance of voting, two Catholic Church-linked organizations, Cáritas do Brasil and Centro Pastoral Popular (CPP), have begun distributing informative pamphlets throughout the country.

The Caritas pamphlet, 45 pages long, entitled "Citizens Should Vote Consciously," explains the voting process for young people and warns them of electoral corruption. The pamphlet, with a printing of 20,000, has been distributed in some other Latin American and African countries.

The CPP pamphlet is 24 pages long, entitled "Your Vote is Worth Lives." According to Domingos Prestes, a CPP spokesman, "The political process is dealt with in depth. People are told that elected officials have an obligation to their constituency. The vote is a democratic instrument and you cannot expect to improve the well-being of the nation if you do not vote," says Prestes.

Agência Brasil
Reporter:Daniel Dutra
Translator: Allen Bennett
09/28/2004