In Marienbourg, a Prefect (Portuguese: Prefeito) is the chief executive of a municipality; currently there are two, Blauberga and Pomerade. The officeholders are elected by universal suffrage every six months and are responsible for the administration and management of the towns. Without the assistance of municipal chambers, Prefects are vested with the power to enact laws which, to be effective, must be approved by the municipal populations through binding referendums. Mayors are also autonomously responsible for appointing town officers, department commissioners and board members and for enforcing town ordinances.
Due to the status of the municipalities as confederate parts that form Marienbourg, municipal governments, and therefore Prefects, do not answer to the national government and have powers to almost completely change their administrative structure and to secede. Despite concentrating many powers, the effectiveness of the Prefects' powers are put in check by the mechanisms of direct democracy present as binding stony clauses in the Constitution of Marienbourg, so that all legislative action of the Prefects must necessarily pass through the scrutiny of the populations of the municipalities through binding referendums.
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