Burundi 2005 Constitution

Title VI. Of the Legislative Power

1. The Provisions Common to the National Assembly and Senate

Article 147

The legislative power is exercised by Parliament, composed of two chambers: the National Assembly and the Senate.

The members of the National Assembly carry the title of deputy; those of the Senate carry the title of senator.

No congressman may belong to the Senate and National Assembly at the same time.

Article 148

An organic law fixes the conditions in which the deputies and the senators are replaced in cases of vacant seats.

Article 149

The mandate of the deputies and senators has a national character. All imperative mandate is null and void.

The vote of the deputies and of the senators is personal.

The internal regulations of the National Assembly and the Senate may exceptionally authorize the delegation of a vote. However, no one may receive the delegation of more than one mandate.

Article 150

The deputies and the senators may not be prosecuted, investigated, arrested, detained, or tried for opinions or votes expressed during parliamentary sessions.

Except in cases of flagrant offense, the deputies and senators may not, during the period of their sessions, be prosecuted except with the authorization of the Office of the National Assembly or the office of the Senate.

The deputies and the senators may not, outside session, be arrested except with the authorization of the Office of the National Assembly, for the deputies or the Office of the Senate for the senators except in cases of flagrant offense, of prosecutions already authorized or final convictions.

Article 151

The deputies and senators are justiciable before the Supreme Court conforming to the law governing the court and prescribing the code of the organization of the judicial competence.

Article 152

The mandate of deputy or senator is incompatible with all other function of a public character. An organic law may exempt certain categories of local elected officials or agents of the State of a mandate incompatible with the position of deputy or senator.

Article 153

An organic law fixes the system of compensation and benefits of the deputies and senators as well as the system of incompatibilities. It also prescribes their specific system of social security.

Article 154

When they enter into office and at the end of their term, the members of the offices of the National Assembly and the Senate must, on their honor, make a written declaration of their assets and property addressed to the Supreme Court.

Article 155

A deputy or senator nominated to the Government or any other public office incompatible with a parliamentary mandate must immediately resign from the National Assembly and Senate if he accepts, and be replaced by a successor.

The deputy or senator placed in one of the situations described in the preceding paragraphs will resume his functions as soon as the incompatibilities are resolved if his term in office is still in course.

Article 156

The mandate of deputies and senator will end by death, dismissal, permanent incapacity or unjustified absence for more than a quarter of meetings during a parliamentary session or when the deputy or senator experiences one of the cases of degradation provisioned by an organic law.

Article 157

Except in cases of states of emergency declared by the Constitutional Court, the deliberations of the National Assembly and of the Senate are not valid unless they take place in their ordinary sessions.

The sessions of the National Assembly and of the Senate are public. However, the National Assembly and the Senate may convene privately in case of need.

The minutes of the debates of the National Assembly and the Senate is published in the parliamentary journal.

Article 158

Parliament votes on new law and controls the action of the Government.

Article 159

These are within the domain the law:

1. The fundamental guarantees and obligations of the citizen:
   • Safeguard of individual liberty
     
     Protection of public liberties

     Constraints imposed, in the interest of national defense and public security, on citizens’ personhood and property.

2. The status of persons and property:
   • Nationality, status, and capacity of people;
     
     Matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts;

     Regimes of property, of realty rights and of civil and commercial obligations;

3. The political, administrative, and judicial organizations:
   • General organization of administration;
     
     Territorial organization, creation and modification of administrative conscriptions as well as electoral divisions;

     Electoral system;

     General organization of national orders, of decorations and honorific titles;

     General rules of organization of national defense;

     General rules of organization of the national police;

     Status of persons in the defense and security corps;

     Status of personnel in Parliament;

     General principles of the public function;

     Statute of the public function;

     Status of exception;

     Organic framework of creation and of suppression of the public [and] autonomous establishments and services;

     Organization of jurisdictions of all orders and procedure followed before these jurisdictions, creation of new orders of jurisdiction, determination of statutes of the magistrate, of the ministerial offices, and of the auxiliaries of justice;

     Determination of crimes and offenses, as well as their applicable punishments;

     The organization of the bar;

     The penitentiary regime;

     Amnesty.

4. The protection of the environment and the conservation of natural resources;
5. Issues of finance and inheritance;
   • Regime for the emission of the currency;
     
     Budget of the State;

     Definition of the base and of the tax rate and taxes;

     Alienation and management within the domain of the State.

6. The nationalization and privatization of companies and the transfers of property of companies from the public to the private sector;
7. The system of education and scientific research;
8. The objectives of the social and economic activities of the State;
9. The legislation of work, social security, the right to syndicate, including the conditions of exercising the right to strike.

Article 160

Matters other than those within the domain of the law are of a regulatory character.

Legislative texts intervening in these matters may be modified by presidential decree taken after consultation with the Constitutional Court.

Article 161

The regulatory texts intervening in matters that belong to the domain of the law may be modified by a legislative vote, after consultation with the Constitutional Court.

Article 162

The financial laws determine, for each year, the resources and expenses of the State.

Article 163

The two chambers of Parliament reunite in congress to:

1. Receive a message from the President of the Republic;
2. Accuse the President of the Republic in case of high treason, through a resolution taken by two thirds of the members of the National Assembly and Senate;
3. Reexamine the draft of the finance laws conforming to Article 177.
4. Elect the first President of the Republic post-transition.
5. Evaluate, ever six months, the implementation of the Government’s programming;
6. Receive the oath of the CENI.

The Office of Parliament reunited in congress is composed of the offices of the National Assembly and the Senate. The presidency and vice-presidency of these meetings are given respectively to the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate.

The internal regulations of the National Assembly apply to congressional meetings.

2. Of the National Assembly

Article 164

The National Assembly is composed of at least one hundred deputies at the rate of 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi, with a minimum of 30% of women, elected by direct universal suffrage for a mandate of five years and three deputies from the Twa co-opted ethnicity conforming to the electoral code.

Where the results of the vote do not reflect the above percentages, a co-optation mechanism provided under the electoral code will proceed to address the imbalance.

The number of candidates to elect by district is fixed by electoral law proportionally to the population.

Article 165

Candidates for legislative elections must be of Burundi nationality and origin, be at least twenty-five years old, and enjoy all his or her civil or political rights.

Candidates for legislative elections must not have criminal convictions or offenses under the common law with a punishment determined by the electoral law.

The electoral law determines as well the period of time after which someone convicted in the sense given above may regain his or her eligibility after the execution of his or her sentence.

Article 166

The candidates to legislative election may be presented by the political parties or present themselves as independents as defined by Article 99 of the present Constitution.

Article 167

The national independent electoral commission verifies the admissibility of candidates.

Article 168

The elections of deputies occur following the ballot of lists by proportional representation. These lists must have a multiethnic character and maintain the equilibrium between women and men. For three candidates listed in a row, only two may belong to the same ethnic group, and at least a quarter of the candidates must be women.

Article 169

Candidates presented by political parties, or the lists of independents, may not be considered as elected to the National Assembly unless, at the national level, their party or list has at least 2% of the popular vote.

Article 170

As soon as its first session, the National Assembly will adopt its internal regulations that determine how it should organize and function. The National Assembly will also put in place its office. The first session will take place on the first business day following the seventh day after the validation of its election by the Constitutional Court. This session is presided over by the oldest deputy.

Article 171

The office of the National Assembly is comprised of a President and Vice-Presidents.

The President and the other members of the office of the National Assembly are elected for all the legislature. However, he may end their functions in the conditions fixed by the internal regulations of the National Assembly.

Article 172

Parliamentary groups may be constituted within the National Assembly. The internal regulation of the National Assembly fixes the manner of its organization and functioning.

Article 173

The parties of opposition at the National Assembly have the right to participate in all parliamentary commissions, whether they are specialized commissions or investigatory commissions.

A political party providing a member in the Government may claim to be part of the opposition.

Article 174

The National Assembly convenes in three annual, regular sessions of three months each. The first session begins the first Monday of February, the second begins the first Monday of June, and the third on the first Monday of October.

Extraordinary sessions may not last longer than fifteen days. They may be convened at the demand of the President of the Republic or at the demand of an absolute majority of the members composed of the National Assembly, for a specific agenda.

Extraordinary sessions are opened and closed by decree of the President of the Republic.

Article 175

The National Assembly may not have a valid deliberation unless at least two thirds of the deputies are present. The laws are voted by the majority of two-thirds of the deputies presented or represented.

The organic laws are voted by the majority of two-thirds of the deputies present or represented, except this majority cannot be inferior to the absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly.

The majority of two-thirds of deputies present or represented is also required for voting on resolutions, decisions, and important recommendations.

Article 176

The National Assembly is referred to the bill of the law of finances from the opening of the session in October.

Article 177

The National Assembly votes on the general budget of the State. If the National Assembly has not decided the budget by December 31st, the budget of the preceding year will apply by provisional twelfths.

At the demand of the President of the Republic, Parliament will reconvene within fifteen days to reexamine the bill of the law of finances.

If Parliament has not voted on the budget by the end of that session, the budget is established definitively by a decree-law taken in Council of the Ministers.

Article 178

A Court of Accounts will be created to examine and certify the accounts of all public services. The Court assists Parliament in the control and execution of the law of finances.

The Court of Accounts presents to Parliament a report on the regularity of the general account of the State and confirms if the funds are being used in conformity with the established procedures and the budget approved by Parliament.

The Court will give a copy of this report to the Government.

The Court of Accounts is granted the necessary resources to exercise its functions.

The law determines its missions, organization, competences, functioning and procedure followed before it.

3. Of the Senate

Article 179

Candidates for the election of senators must be of Burundi nationality, be over thirty years old at the time of the election, and still have all his or her civil and political rights.

Candidates to senatorial elections may not have been convicted of a crime or misdemeanor of the common law with a punishment determined by the electoral law.

The electoral law also determines the period of time after which a person convicted in the sense given above may regain his or her eligibility after the execution of his or her sentence.

Article 180

The Senate is composed of:

1. Two delegates of each province, elected by an electoral college composed of members of the communal Councils of the province considered, from different ethnic communities and elected by distinct ballots;
2. Three persons from the Twa ethnicity,
3. The former Heads of State.

There must be a minimum of thirty percent of women. The electoral law determines the practical modalities, with co-optation in the necessary cases.

Article 181

The national, independent electoral commission verifies the candidate’s eligibility. These candidates come from political parties or may run as independents as defined by Article 98 of the present Constitution.

Article 182

As soon as the first session, the Senate will adopt its internal regulations that determine its organization and functioning. The Senate will also elect its Office.

The first session will rightfully convene the first business day following the seventh day after the validation of its election by the Constitutional Court. This session is presided over by the oldest senator.

Article 183

The Office is composed of a President and Vice-Presidents.

Article 184

The formation of parliamentary groups is prohibited within the Senate.

Article 185

The Senate will convene each year in three regular sessions of three months each and at the same time as the National Assembly.

Extraordinary sessions may not last longer than fifteen days, may be convened at the demand of the President of the Republic or at the demand of an absolute majority of members composing the Senate, for a specific agenda.

Extraordinary sessions are open and closed by decree of the President of the Republic.

Article 186

The Senate may not validly deliberate unless two-thirds of senators are present. The decisions are taken with a majority of two-thirds of senators presented or represented.

The organic laws are voted at the majority of two thirds of the senators present or represented, except the majority may not be inferior to the majority absolute of the members of the Senate.

Article 187

The Senate is granted the following responsibilities:

1. Approve the amendments to the Constitution and the organic laws, including the laws governing the electoral process;
2. Be referred to the report of the ombudsman on all aspects of the public administration;
3. Approve the texts of the laws concerning the limitations, attributes and powers of the territorial entities;
4. Lead investigations in the public administration and, the case arising, make recommendations to assure that no region or group is excluded from the benefits of the public services;
5. Control the application of the constitutional dispositions requiring ethic and gender representation and equilibrium in all the structures and institutions of the State notably the public administration and the corps of defense and security;
6. Council the President of the Republic and the President of the National assembly on all questions, notably the legislative order
7. Formulate the observations or propose the amendments concerning the legislation adopted by the National Assembly
8. Elaborate and make propositions of law for review by the National Assembly.
9. Approve the nominations of only the following functions:
   1. The chiefs of the Corps of defense and security
   2. The governors of province
   3. The ambassadors;
   4. The Ombudsman;
   5. The members of the Superior Council and the Magistrate;
   6. The members of the Supreme Court;
   7. The members of the Constitutional Court;
   8. The Attorney General of the Republic and the magistrates of the of the Prosecutor General of the Republic;
   9. The President of the Court of Appeals and the President of the Administrative Court;
   10. The Prosecutor General near the Court of Appeal;
   11. The presidents of the Courts of First Instance, of the Court of Commerce and of the Court of Labor;
   12. The prosecutors of the Republic;
   13. The members of the national, independent Electoral Commission.

4. Of the Procedure of Adopting New Law

Article 188

The bills and propositions of law are deposed simultaneously at the offices of the National Assembly and Senate.

All bills of law and all propositions of law will specify if it is about a subject relevant to the responsibilities of the Senate conforming to Article 187.

The texts referred to in the preceding paragraph are registered in the agenda of the Senate.

The other texts are examined following the procedure prescribed in articles 190 and 191 below.

In cases of doubt or litigation over the eligibility of a text, the President of the Republic, the President of the National Assembly or the President of the Senate will refer to the Constitutional Court to decide the issue.

Article 189

For the subject other than those mentioned in Article 188, the proposal of law is first read by the National Assembly. It is then transmitted to the Senate by the President of the National Assembly.

At the demand of its Office or at least a third of its members, the Senate examines the proposed law. This demand is formulated within seven days of the reception of the law.

No more than ten actual days after the demand, the Senate may either decide that it will not amend the proposed law, or that it will adopt the proposed law after having amended it.

If the Senate had not decided within the time given or if it makes known to the National Assembly not to amend the proposed law, the President of the National Assembly will transmit the bill to the President of the Republic within forty-eight hours for promulgation.

If the bill is amended, the Senate will transmit it to the National Assembly that will pronounce whether it adopts the bills or rejects the bill in its entirety or just the amendments adopted by the Senate.

Article 190

If, on the occasion of the examination referred to in the last paragraph of Article 189, the National Assembly adopts a new amendment, the bill of law is returned to the Senate which makes a decision on the amended bill.

Within a time period that cannot exceed five days including the date of return of the bill, the Senate may either decide to accept the bill amended by the National Assembly, or adopt it after amending it again.

If the Senate does not make a decision on bill within the period of time given or if it makes known to the National Assembly its decision to accept the version of bill accepted by the National Assembly, the Assembly will transmit the bill within forty-eight hours to the President of the Republic for promulgation.

If the bill is amended again, the Senate will transmit the amended bill back to the National assembly who will pronounce definitely on the bill, either adopting the Senate’s version or amending it again.

Article 191

Regarding subjects discussed in Articles 187, 1, and 3, the text adopted by the National Assembly is transmitted for adoption to the Senate by the President of the National Assembly.

The Senate will adopt the bill, within a time period not to exceed thirty jour, either without amendment, or after having amended it.

If the Senate adopts the bill without amendment, the President of the Senate will return the adopted text to the President of the National Assembly who will transmit it within forty-eight hours to the President of the Republic for promulgation.

If the Senate adopts the bill after amending it, the President of the Senate will transmit the amended bill to the National Assembly for another review.

If the amendments proposed by the Senate are adopted by the National Assembly, the President of the National Assembly will transmit, within forty-eight hours, the definitive text to the President of the Republic for promulgation.

When, following a disagreement between the two chambers, a bill or proposed law is not adopted, the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate will create a mixed, equal commission charged with proposing a common text for all or the remaining part of the bill in dispute, within fifteen days.

The text edited by the mixed, equal commission is submitted for approval to the two chambers. No amendment is admissible. Each chamber will approve the bill separately.

If the mixed commission does succeed at adopting a common text, or if this text is not adopted by both chambers, the President of the Republic may either request that the National Assembly decide definitely or declare void the bill or proposed law.

The National Assembly adopts a bill with a two-thirds majority.