TITLE V. OF THE PARLIAMENT
Article 78
The Parliament consists of one sole Chamber denominated [the] “National Assembly”.
Article 79
The members of the National Assembly have the title of “Deputy”.
Article 80
The Deputies are elected by direct, equal and secret universal suffrage.
They exercise the legislative power.
Every person elected Deputy must benefit[,] the case arising, from a leave of absence or from a suspension of contract[,] as the case may be.
Article 81
The duration of the legislature is of five years.
However, by derogation of the paragraph above and in the case of force majeure or of necessity expressed by the National Assembly with the absolute majority of the Deputies, the duration of the legislature may be prorogued until the validation of the mandate of the Deputies of the new legislature.
No extension may surpass a duration of one year.
Article 82
The law determines:
- the electoral circumscriptions;
the number of seats and their divisions by circumscriptions; the modes of the ballot; the conditions of election and of replacement by new elections in the case of vacancy of [a] seat, as well as the regime of the ineligibilities and of the incompatibilities; the status of the Deputies and the amount of their indemnities.
Article 83
It may not proceed to partial elections in the last third of the legislature.
Article 84
The National Assembly votes the law, consents to taxation and controls the action of the Government conforming to the provisions of this Constitution.
Article 85
Each Deputy is the representative of the Nation.
Any imperative mandate is null.
However, any Deputy who freely resigns from his party or from his political formation or who loses his status [as an] independent notably by becoming [a] member of a political party or formation is deprived of his mandate. It proceeds to his replacement in accordance with the law.
All the Deputies have deliberative voice. The right to vote of the Deputies is personal. However, the delegation of the vote is permitted when the absence of a Deputy is justified. No one may validly receive for a given [donné] ballot more than one delegation of [the] vote.
Article 86
The National Assembly proclaims the validity of the election of its members[,] notwithstanding the control of regularity exercised by the Constitutional Council.
It establishes its regulations.
Article 87
The National Assembly meets of plain right each year in two ordinary sessions on the convocation of its President.
The duration of each shall not exceed ninety days.
The first session opens the first Wednesday of the month of March and the second the last Wednesday of the month of September. If the first Wednesday of March or the last Wednesday of September is a holiday, the session opens the first working day possible which follows.
Article 88
The National Assembly meets in extraordinary session on convocation of its President, at the demand of the Prime Minister or of the absolute majority of the Deputies on a specific agenda. The extraordinary session is closed on completion of the agenda.
Article 89
The sittings of the National Assembly are public.
However, in case of need and at the demand of the Prime Minister or of a third of the Deputies, the National Assembly may be held in closed [session].
Article 90
Except [in the] case of force majeure declared by the Constitutional Council, the deliberations of the National Assembly are valid only if they have taken place at its seat [à son siège].
Article 91
The National Assembly is directed by a President assisted by a Bureau.
The President of the National Assembly is elected, by the absolute majority of the members of the National Assembly in the first round or by the simple majority at the second round, for the duration of the legislature. He is re-eligible one sole time.
In no case, may one exercise more than two mandates of President of the National Assembly, consecutively or intermittently.
The members of the Bureau are elected for one year renewable. However, their functions can be terminated during the course of the legislature at the demand of two-fifths[,] and after a vote of the absolute majority[,] of the members of the National Assembly.
By absolute majority [it] is understood [to mean] more than half of the votes [voix].
Article 92
In case of vacancy of the presidency of the National Assembly by death, resignation or for any other cause, the National Assembly elects, within the conditions established in Article 91, a new President within the fifteen days following the vacancy if it is in session. In the contrary case, it meets in extraordinary session within the conditions established by the Regulations.
Article 93
The National Assembly enjoys financial autonomy.
The President of the National Assembly manages the credits which are allotted to him for his functioning.
The President is responsible for this management before the National Assembly. It can dismiss him by a majority of three-fifths for incompetence [faute lourde] in his management.
Article 94
Every Deputy appointed to high functions is replaced by a substitute. The list of the high functions is determined by the law.
If he ceases to exercise his functions at the latest before the end of the [first] half of the legislature, he can retake his seat; beyond this date, he may only retake it in case of vacancy of the seat by the death or resignation of the substitute.
Article 95
No Deputy may be prosecuted, investigated, arrested, detained or judged for reason of the opinions or votes emitted by him during the exercise or on the occasion of the exercise of his functions.
Article 96
Except in the case of flagrante delicto, a Deputy may only be prosecuted or arrested in a penal or criminal matter with the authorization of at least one-third of the members of the National Assembly during the sessions or of the Bureau of the National Assembly when out of sessions.
Article 96.1
The parliamentary opposition has the right, once a year, to introduce a bill of resolution in view of the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry and to preside over it.
This parliamentary commission of inquiry is open to the members of the other parliamentary groups.
The procedure and the conditions of creation of the said [ladite] parliamentary commission of inquiry are governed by the Regulations of the National Assembly.
