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Democracy Fund project partner wins prestigious journalism award in Brazil for their work on monitoring the work of Brazil's legislative Houses

The organisation "Transparência Brasil", project partner of the UN Democracy Fund, won the 2006 Esso Journalism Award for its work on Monitoring the Brazilian Legislative Houses and Representatives. The award is the most traditional and prestigious media award in Brazil, having existed since 1955.

The project, called "Your Excellencies"( "Excelências") was the Internet electoral phenomenon of the Brazilian 2006 general elections. In the two months of its existence there were more than 7.5 million visits to the candidate's pages. Besides hundreds of blogs and web pages, information conveyed in these pages were systematically reproduced by all leading Brazilian newspapers and many TV and radio networks - the reason for the award.

The database included 568 profiles of candidates to federal representatives, of which 480 were seeking reelection.

During the year of 2007, in a joint initiative with the UN Democracy Fund, the project will be expanded to provide a more permanent monitoring of the functioning of both federal and state Legislative Houses. The main goal will be to create a system where observers will be able to follow the way elected representatives act, with data about votes, presence and interventions in committees, expenditures, and other legislative activities.