TITLE IV. LEGISLATIVE POWER
I. The National Assembly
ARTICLE 79
The Parliament shall be composed of a single Assembly called the National Assembly whose members shall carry the title of Deputy.
It shall exercise legislative power and shall control the action of the Government.
ARTICLE 80
The Deputies shall be elected by direct universal suffrage. The duration of the mandate shall be four years. They may be re-elected. Each Deputy shall be the representative of the entire nation and any compulsory vote shall be void.
ARTICLE 81
The law shall fix the number of members of the National Assembly, the conditions of eligibility, the rules of incompatibilities, and the conditions under which it shall provide for vacant seats.
The Constitutional Court shall decide supremely on the validity of the election of the Deputies.
Any member of the Armed Forces or of the Public Security who desires to be a candidate for the office of Deputy must first send in his resignation from the Armed Forces or from the Public Security.
In this case, the interested party will be able to claim the benefit of rights acquired in accordance with the regulations of his organization.
ARTICLE 82
The National Assembly shall be directed by a President assisted by an Office Staff. They shall be elected for the duration of the Legislature under conditions fixed by the Rules of Procedure of the said Assembly.
When he shall assume the interim period of the President of the Republic under the conditions provided for in Article 50 of the present Constitution, the President of the National Assembly shall be replaced in his duties in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly.
ARTICLE 83
In case of vacancy of the Presidency of the National Assembly by death, resignation, or any other cause, the Assembly shall elect a new President within the fifteen days following the vacancy if it is in session; should it be otherwise, it shall reconvene in full session under the conditions fixed by its Rules of Procedure.
In case of necessity, there shall be provision for the replacement of other members of the Office Staff according to the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the said Assembly.
ARTICLE 84
The President of the National Assembly must render an account to the National Assembly of his management and of his activities and must furnish to it any explanations that may be demanded of him.
Any Deputy may address to the President of the Assembly written or oral questions on his activities and his management.
The National Assembly may establish a commission of inquiry charged with making a detailed report to it.
According to the terms of this report, the National Assembly may demand the resignation of its President by a two-thirds majority of its members.
If this quorum shall be attained, the President of the Assembly shall be automatically dismissed from his office, while keeping his title of Deputy.
The National Assembly shall proceed within a period of fifteen days with the election of a new President.
ARTICLE 85
If, at the opening of a session, the quorum of one half-plus one of the members composing the National Assembly shall not be attained, the session shall be postponed to the third day which follows. The deliberations shall then be valid whatever the quorum may be.
ARTICLE 86
The sessions of the Assembly shall be valid only if they occur in the usual place of the sessions, except in the case of an unforeseeable event duly verified by the Constitutional Court.
The entire report of the debates of the National Assembly shall be published in the Official Journal.
ARTICLE 87
The Assembly shall convene in its own right in two special sessions per year.
The first session shall open during the first fortnight of the month of April.
The second session shall open during the second fortnight of the month of October.
Each of the sessions may not exceed three months.
ARTICLE 88
The National Assembly shall be convened in special session by its President with a specific agenda at the request of the President of the Republic or by the absolute majority of the Deputies.
The duration of an special session may not exceed fifteen days. The National Assembly may break up as soon as the agenda has been exhausted.
ARTICLE 89
The proceedings of the National Assembly shall take place following Rules of Procedure which it shall adopt in accordance with the Constitution.
The Rules of Procedure shall determine:
- The composition, the rules for the operation of the Office, as well as the powers and prerogatives of its President;
The number, the method of designation, the composition, the role and the competence of its permanent committees, as well as those that shall be special and temporary; The creation of parliamentary committees of inquiry within the framework of the control of governmental action; The organization of administrative services directed by an Administrative Secretary General placed under the authority of the President of the National Assembly; The rules of discipline of the Deputies during the sessions of the Assembly; The different methods of voting, with the exclusion of those expressly provided by the present Constitution.
ARTICLE 90
The members of the National Assembly shall enjoy parliamentary immunity. As a consequence, no Deputy may be followed, searched, arrested, detained or judged for opinions or votes issued by him during the exercise of his duties.
A Deputy may, during the duration of the sessions, be followed or arrested in a criminal or correctional matter only with the authorization of the National Assembly except in the case of a flagrant offense.
A Deputy outside of the session may be arrested only with the authorization of the Office of the National Assembly, except in the case of a flagrant offense, of authorized legal actions or of final conviction.
The detention or pursuit of a Deputy shall be suspended if the National Assembly should require it for a vote by a two-thirds majority.
ARTICLE 91
Deputies shall collect the parliamentary salaries which shall be fixed by law.
ARTICLE 92
Any Deputy appointed to a ministerial post shall automatically lose his parliamentary mandate. The conditions for his replacement shall be fixed by law.
ARTICLE 93
The right to vote of the Deputies shall be personal. The Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly may authorize in exceptional cases the delegation of a vote. In this instance, no one may receive the delegation for more than one term of office.
II. Relations Between the Assembly and the Government
ARTICLE 94
The National Assembly shall inform the President of the Republic of the agenda of its sessions and of those of its committees.
ARTICLE 95
The members of the Government shall have access to the sessions of the National Assembly. They shall be heard at the demand of a Deputy, of a committee or at their own demand.
They may be assisted by experts.
ARTICLE 96
The National Assembly shall pass the law and consent to the taxes.
ARTICLE 97
The law shall be passed by the National Assembly by a simple majority. However, the bills on which the present Constitution shall confer the character of organic laws shall be passed and modified under the following conditions:
- The proposal or the draft shall be submitted for the deliberation and vote of the Assembly only after the expiration of a period of fifteen days after its deposit in the Office of the Assembly;
The text may be adopted only by the majority of members comprising the Assembly; The organic laws may be promulgated only after a declaration by the Constitutional Court of their conformity to the Constitution.
ARTICLE 98
Under the domain of the law are the rules concerning:
- Citizenship, civic rights and the fundamental guarantees accorded to the citizens for the exercise of their public liberties; the constraints imposed, in the interest of national defense and public security, on the citizens in their person and on their property;
Nationality, the state and the legal competence of persons, the matrimonial property system, inheritance and gifts; The procedure according to which customary laws shall be recorded and brought into harmony with the fundamental principles of the Constitution; The determination of crimes and offenses as well as the penalties which shall be applicable to them; Amnesty; The organization of courts of all classes and the procedure followed before these courts; the creation of new classes of courts; the regulation of the magistrature, of ministerial offices and of judicial auxiliaries; The tax base, the rates and the methods of collection of taxes of every nature; The system for the issuance of currency; The electoral system for the President of the Republic, the members of the National Assembly and of the local Assemblies; The creation of categories of public establishments [i.e. independent organs charged with public duties and regulated by public law-supplied]; The General Law of Public Office; The Law of Military Personnel, Public Security Forces, and the Assimiles [i.e. non combatants ranking with the combatants-supplied]; The general organization of the Administration; The territorial organization, the creation and the modification of administrative Circonscriptions [i.e. districts] as well as the apportionment of electoral districts; The state of siege and the state of emergency.
The law shall determine the fundamental principles:
- Of the organization of the national defense;
Of the free administration of territorial units, of their competences and of their resources; Of education and of scientific research; Of the system of property, of real estate laws and of civil and commercial obligations; Of the nationalization and denationalization of enterprises and of the transfer of the ownership of enterprises from the public sector to the private sector; Of labor law, of social security, of the right to organize trade unions and of the right to strike; Of the transfer of rights and of the management of State property; Of the mutual insurance system and of the savings and loans institutions; Of the organization of production; Of the protection of the environment and the conservation of natural resources; Of the system of transportation and of telecommunications; Of the penal system.
ARTICLE 99
The financial laws shall determine the receipts and expenditures of the State.
The laws of settlement shall control the execution of the financial laws, with the reservation of further verification of the accounts of the Nation by the Chambre des Comptes of the Supreme Court.
The laws to carry out a program shall fix the objectives of the economic and social action of the State.
ARTICLE 100
Matters other than those which are in the domain of the law have a regulatory nature.
The texts of legislative procedures reached in these matters prior to the entry into force of the present Constitution may be modified by decree taken after an opinion from the Constitutional Court.
ARTICLE 101
Declaration of war shall be authorized by the National Assembly.
When, following exceptional circumstances, the National Assembly cannot sit expediently, the decision of a declaration of war shall be taken before the Council of Ministers by the President of the Republic who shall immediately inform the nation of it.
The state of siege and the state of emergency shall be decreed in the Council of Ministers, after the advice of the National Assembly.
The extension of a state of siege or of a state of emergency beyond fifteen days may be authorized only by the National Assembly.
When the National Assembly has not been called on to reach a decision, no state of siege or state of emergency may be decreed without its authorization within the sixty days following the date of enforcement of a previous state of siege or of emergency.
ARTICLE 102
The Government may, for the execution of its program, request the National Assembly to vote a statute authorizing it to issue by edict, during a limited period of time, measures which are normally in the domain of the statute. This authorization may be granted only by a two-thirds majority of the members of the National Assembly.
The edicts shall be issued in the Council of Ministers, after the advice of the Constitutional Court. They shall enter into force upon their publication, but they shall become null and void if the bill of ratification has not been placed before the Assembly in advance of the date fixed by the enabling act.
At the expiration of the period of time mentioned in the first paragraph of the present article, the edicts may be modified only by statute in their provisions which are in the legislative domain.
ARTICLE 103
The Deputies shall have the right of amendment.
ARTICLE 104
Resolutions, draft bills and amendments which are not in the domain of the law shall be inadmissible.
The inadmissibility shall be pronounced by the President of the National Assembly after due deliberation of the Office [of the National Assembly].
If it appears that the proposal or the amendment would be contrary to a delegation accorded by virtue of Article 102 of the present Constitution, the Government may oppose the inadmissibility.
In case of a dispute about paragraphs 1 and 3 of the present article, the Constitutional Court, upon the request of the President of the National Assembly or the Government, shall decide within a period of eight days.
ARTICLE 105
The initiation of bills shall belong concurrently to the President of the Republic and to the members of the National Assembly.
Government bills shall be deliberated in the Council of Ministers, after an opinion substantiated by the Supreme Court, requested in accordance with Article 132 of the present Constitution, and deposited in the Office of the National Assembly.
The bills and draft bills shall be sent before deliberation in plenary session to the suitable committee of the National Assembly for examination.
The draft budget of the National Assembly may not be examined in committee or in plenary session without having been previously submitted to the Office of the said Assembly.
ARTICLE 106
The discussion of draft bills shall focus on the text presented by the committee. The latter, at the demand of the Government must bring to the knowledge of the National Assembly the points on which there is disagreement with the Government.
ARTICLE 107
Resolutions and amendments made by the Deputies shall not be admissible when their adoption would have as a consequence either a diminution of public resources or the creation of, or the increase of a public charge unless they shall be accompanied by a proposal for the increase of receipts or of equivalent savings.
ARTICLE 108
The Deputies may, by a three-fourths majority vote, decide to submit any question to a referendum.
ARTICLE 109
The National Assembly shall vote on the appropriations bill under conditions determined by the law. The National Assembly shall submit an appropriations bill at least one week before the opening of the October session. The appropriations bill must provide for the revenue necessary for the full coverage of the expenses.
ARTICLE 110
The National Assembly shall vote a balanced budget. If the National Assembly has not come to a decision by December 31, the provisions of the appropriations bill may be enforced by edict.
The Government shall submit the matter for ratification to the National Assembly called into extraordinary session within a period of fifteen days.
If the National Assembly shall not vote the budget at the end of this extraordinary session, the budget shall be established permanently by edict.
ARTICLE 111
If the appropriations bill cannot be promulgated before the beginning of the budget year, the President of the Republic shall demand immediately from the National Assembly the authorization to manage the receipts and expenses of the State temporarily by “douziemes provisoires”.
ARTICLE 112
The National Assembly shall regulate the accounts of the nation according to the modalities provided by the organic financial law.
In this effort it shall be assisted by the Chambre des Comptes of the Supreme Court which it shall charge with all inquiries and studies relating to the management of receipts and public expenditures whether of the management of the national treasury, of the territorial communities, or of the administrations or institutions dependent on the State or submitted to its control.
ARTICLE 113
The Government shall be obliged to furnish to the National Assembly all explanations which shall be demanded of it concerning its management and its activities.
The means of information and of control of the National Assembly on governmental action shall be:
- The interpellation in accordance with Article 71;
The written question; The oral question with or without debate, and not followed by a vote; The parliamentary committee of inquiry.
These means shall be exercised under the conditions determined by the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly.
