TITLE IV. OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER
Article 49
The Central African People elect, by direct universal suffrage, citizens who constitute the Parliament and have the title of Deputy.
The Parliament of the Central African Republic is constituted in a single Assembly which has the name of the National Assembly.
Each Deputy is the elect of the Nation.
Chapter 1. Of the Deputies
Article 50
The Deputies are elected by direct universal suffrage for a duration of five (5) years.
However, the National Assembly remains in [its] functions until the end of the electoral process when in the course of its mandate unforeseen and irresistible events arise as provided for in Article 24, new paragraph 6.
The mandate of a Deputy can only be shortened by dissolution of the National Assembly or by the resignation, the removal [radiation]or the disqualification of the said Deputy.
Within the sixty (60) days that follow the installation of the National Assembly, the Deputies make, each in that which concerns them, a written declaration of[their] patrimony, deposited at the office of the Office of the Constitutional Court which renders it public within eight (8) working days.
A law determines the number, the regime of the eligibility, of the ineligibilities, of the incompatibilities, [and] of the indemnities of the Deputies as well as the rules enabling decision[s] on the disputes [concerning] the elections to the National Assembly. It establishes the conditions of their replacement in case of vacancy of [a] seat.
Article 51
The National Assembly elects its President for the duration of the legislature within the first eight (8) days of its installation.
The other members of the Bureau are elected annually.
The President of the National Assembly can be the made the object of [the] procedure of dismissal for breach [manquement] of the duties of his responsibility [charge] on the substantiated demand of one-third (1/3) of the Deputies.
The dismissal is only declared if the vote receives the two-thirds (2/3) [vote] of the members composing the National Assembly.
The National Assembly then proceeds to elect a new President within the three(3) working days which follow that dismissal.
The vote takes place by secret ballot [bulletin].
Article 52
The members of the National assembly enjoy parliamentary immunity. Consequently, no Deputy may be prosecuted, investigated or arrested, detained or judged on the occasion of the opinions or votes emitted by them in the exercise of their functions.
During the sessions, a Deputy may only be prosecuted or arrested in a correctional matter, with the authorization of the National Assembly[,] granted by vote by secret ballot[,] with the absolute majority of the members who compose it.
Out of session, a Deputy may only be prosecuted or arrested with the authorization of the Bureau of the National Assembly. This authorization maybe suspended if the National Assembly so decides with the absolute majority.
The Deputy caught in fragrante delicto or in flight[,] after the commission of criminal acts or misdemeanors, can be prosecuted and arrested without the authorization of the National Assembly or of its Bureau.
The prosecution of a Deputy is suspended until the end of his mandate, except incases of the lifting of parliamentary immunity, if the National Assembly requires it by vote with the absolute majority of the members who compose it.
The Deputy who is made the object of a definitive criminal conviction is removed [radie] from the list of Deputies of the National Assembly within the conditions established by an organic law.
Article 53
The right to vote of the Deputies is personal. Any imperative mandate is null. The internal regulations of the National Assembly may, exceptionally, authorize the delegation of [the] vote in a specific case. No one may receive more than one [such] mandate.
Chapter 2. Of the Sessions and of the Sittings
Article 54
The National Assembly meets, of plain right, in two ordinary sessions per year of ninety (90) days each at most.
The first session opens on the 1st of March; the second session the 1st of October.
Article 55
On the initiative of the President of the Republic or at the demand of the absolute majority of its members, the National Assembly meets in extraordinary session on a specific agenda.
The extraordinary sessions of the National Assembly are opened and closed by Decree of the President of the Republic.
When an extraordinary session is held at the demand of members of the National Assembly, the Decree of closure intervenes as soon as the National Assembly has exhausted the agenda for which it was convoked and at the latest fifteen (15) days from the date of its meeting.
Article 56
The agenda of the ordinary sittings of the National Assembly is established by the Conference of Presidents.
A member of the Government is given the charge, for each bill of law, to present the reasons and to support the discussion before the National Assembly.
The members of the Government have access to the National Assembly and to its Commissions; they are heard when they so formulate the demand; they can be assisted by collaborators designated by them.
Article 57
The sittings of the National Assembly are public. The complete record of the debates must be published in the Journal Officiel des debates [Official Gazette of Debates].
However, the National Assembly may sit in [a] closed meeting, at the demand either of its President, or of the absolute majority of the members who compose it, or of the President of the Republic.
Chapter 3. Of the Powers of the National Assembly
Article 58
The National Assembly votes the law, raises taxes and controls the action of Government within the conditions established by this Constitution.
The National Assembly regulates the accounts of the Nation. It is, to this end, assisted by the Court of Accounts.
The National Assembly can charge [charger] the Court of Accounts [with] any inquiry and study reporting on the execution of public receipts and expenses or on the management of the national treasury and of the public monies [deniers].
Article 59
The National Assembly is solely enabled to authorize the declaration of war. It meets specially to this effect. The President of the Republic informs the Nation of it by a message.
Article 60
The National Assembly decides on the bills of law deposited with its Bureau by the President of the Republic and the Government or on the proposals of law deposited by the members of the National Assembly.
Article 61
[The following] are of the domain of the law:
- The rules concerning the following matters:
- the civil rights and the fundamental guarantees granted to citizens for the exercise of the public freedoms;
compliance [respect] concerning the quota granted to women in the decision-making bodies; the constraints imposed on Central Africans and on resident foreigners on their persons and on their assets [biens] in view of public utility and in view of national defense; the nationality, the status and the capacity of persons, the matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts; the status of foreigners and of immigration; the organization of civil estate; the determination of crimes and misdemeanors as well as the penalties that are applicable to them, the criminal procedure, the civil procedure, the commercial law, the social law, amnesty, the creation of new orders of jurisdiction, the status of the magistrates and of the profession of attorney; the organization of public and ministerial offices, the professions of public and ministerial officers[,] and the liberal professions; the fundamental guarantees granted to the civil and military functionaries; the general administrative and financial organizations; the regime of political parties and associations; the electoral code; the privatization of enterprises of the public sector and the nationalization of enterprises; the creation or the suppression of public establishments; the creation and the organization of organs of control, of consultation, of regulation and of mediation; rules for editing and of publication; the plan of development of the Republic; the plan of development and of progressive and widespread implantation of [the language] of Sango; the protection of the environment, the regimes of domains, lands, forestry and mining; the laws of finance; the law of regulations; the establishment, the rate and the modalities of collection of taxes, [and] impositions of any nature; the regime of emission of the currency; the state of warning, the state of urgency, the state of alert and the state of siege; holidays and public celebrations.
- the civil rights and the fundamental guarantees granted to citizens for the exercise of the public freedoms;
- The fundamental principles:
- of the regime of property, [and] of civil and commercial rights and obligations;
of education, of culture, of scientific, technical and technological research and of vocational training; of the right of assembly and of peaceful demonstration; of the right to petition; of health and of public health; of insurance, of cooperatives, of savings and of credit; of the decentralization and of regionalization; of the administration of the territorial collectivities; of the general organization of the national defense; of the prison regime; of the right to work, of the syndical right, and of social security.
- of the regime of property, [and] of civil and commercial rights and obligations;
Article 62
The laws of finance determine the nature, the amount and the allocation[affectation] of the resources and of the expenditures of the State for a specific fiscal year [exercice] taking account of a economic and financial balance that they define.
The laws of finance are obligatorily voted before the end of the fiscal year in progress. If the law of finance establishing the resources and the expenditures for a fiscal year has not been adopted in a timely fashion by the Government, it may demand of urgency of the National Assembly the adoption of a law continuing by [portant]provisional twelfths the Law of Finance of the preceding fiscal year.
Deposited by the Government at the opening of the second ordinary session and at the latest the 15th October, the budget is ordered by a law identified as of finance, before the commencement of the new fiscal year. This law may only include provisions of financial order.
Any proposal of amendments to the bill of the law of finance must be substantiated and accompanied by the development of the means which justify it.
The amendments deposited by the Deputies are irreceivable when they have the effect of leading to a diminution of resources not offset by economies[,] or an augmentation in the expenses [charges] of the State which would not be covered by an equivalent augmentation of resources.
The President of the National Assembly, after consultation of the Bureau of the Assembly, determines this irreceivability.
If the Government demands it, the National Assembly decides on all or part of the bill of the law of finance retaining in it only the amendments accepted by the Government.
The Government is required to deposit with the Bureau of the National Assembly at the first ordinary session in progress, the bill of law of regulation of the preceding fiscal year.
Article 63
The matters other than those which are of the domain of the law arise in the regulatory domain.
Article 64
The National Assembly votes its Internal Regulations. These may only enter into force after having been recognized as conforming to the Constitution by the Constitutional Court.
Chapter 4. Of the Exercise of the Legislative Power
Article 65
The initiative of law belongs concurrently to the President of the Republic, to the Government and to the Deputies.
The proposals of law are deposited with the Bureau of the National Assembly and transmitted to the Government for [its] opinion.
The Government is required to give its opinion forty-five (45) days at the latest from the date of reception. After this time period, the National Assembly examines the proposal of law.
Article 66
One sitting per week is reserved by priority to the questions of the Deputies and to the response of the Government. The Ministers are required to respond at the latest the following week.
Article 67
If it appears in the course of the legislative procedure that a proposal or an amendment is not of the domain of the law or is contrary to a delegation of powers granted to the Government, the President of the Republic, the President of the National Assembly or one-third (1/3) of the Deputies can oppose the receivability.
In case of disagreement, the Constitutional Court, referred to [the matter] by the President of the Republic, the President of the National Assembly or one-third(1/3) of the Deputies, decides within a time period of fifteen (15) days.
Article 68
In addition to the motion of censure, the other means of control of the National Assembly on the Government are:
- the oral question with or without debate;
the written question; the hearing [audition] in commissions; the commission of inquiry and of control; the interpellation.
The law determines the conditions of organization and of functioning of the commissions of inquiry and as well as the powers of the commissions of inquiry and of control.
