Days after the Catalonia referendum, a similar vote is being held across the Brazilian states of Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande Do Sol.
Like the Catalonia vote, the Brazilian referendum is unofficial, not legally binding and being treated by all sides as purely experimental.
But the ‘The South is My Country’ secessionist movement hope the unofficial referendum will spark interest for the real thing.
Leader Celso Deucher said they hoped three million people would go to voting booths in more than 1,000 municipalities.
Voters blamed corruption and unequal taxation for the rise in the movement.
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One said: “Our nation has reached a dramatic level of political disorder that is impossible to mend.
“We want to get rid of Brasilia, Brazil has reached the apex of corruption.”
Another, echoing similar claims to those in prosperous Catalonia, said money was the route of the issue.
One said: “If you look at the six or seven states above us, altogether they don’t give what the three states of the south give in taxation.
“Proportionally they have the same number of votes as Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana.
“If you hear the accent of the political legislature of Brazil it is a north-eastern one.”
Brazil is also struggling to deal with a wave of crime across the country – plus a historically devastating referendum.
This is just the most recent mock referendum to take place on southern secession.
Another took place last October, with 616,917 people taking to polling booths.
According to organisers, 95 per cent voted YES for a new country made up of the three states – although turnout was at less than three per cent.