CHAPTER V. The President of the Republic
Article 60
A citizen with the title President of the Republic of Chile conducts the State and is the Supreme Chief of the Nation.
Article 61
In order to be chosen President of the Republic it is required to have been born in the territory of Chile, to be at least thirty years of age, and to possess the necessary qualifications for being a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Article 62
The President of the Republic will remain in the exercise of his office for the term of six years, and cannot be re-elected for the ensuing term.
Article 63
The President shall be elected by a direct vote of the citizens of all the Republic having the right of suffrage, sixty days before the day on which the term of the incumbent should expire and in the manner as determined by law.
Cognizance of complaints that may occur in respect to the voting, rectifications and general scrutiny of the election belongs to the Qualification Court.
Article 64
The two branches of Congress, convened in public session, fifty days subsequent to the election, a majority of the total membership being present and under the direction of the President of the Senate, shall take into consideration the general scrutiny made by the Qualification Court and will proceed to proclaim as President of the Republic the citizen who may have obtained more than one-half of the votes validly cast.
If the scrutiny does not show this majority, the Joint Congress shall elect from among the citizens who may have received the two highest relative numbers of votes, but if two or more citizens shall have received a tie in the highest relative number, the election shall be made only as between them.
If on the day appointed in this article a majority of the total membership of Congress does not assemble, the session shall be held on the following day with the Deputies and Senators who may attend.
Article 65
The election appertaining to the Joint Congress shall be made by more than one-half of the votes in secret ballot.
If on taking the first ballot this absolute majority does not result, a second ballot shall be taken and at this the balloting shall be limited to the two persons who on the first ballot may have obtained the greatest number of votes, and the blank ballots shall be added to those of the one who may then obtain the largest plurality.
In case of a tie a third ballot in the same manner shall be taken on the day following.
If this results again in a tie the President of the Senate shall at once make the decision.
Article 66
When the President of the Republic in person commands the armed forces, or when from illness, absence from the territory of the Republic, or from any other weighty reason, he cannot exercise his office, the Minister, whom the order of precedence as fixed by law may designate, shall substitute for him, under the title of Vice President of the Republic. In default of such, the Minister who follows in the order of precedence, and in default of all the Ministers, the President of the Senate, the President of the Chamber of Deputies or the President of the Supreme Court successively.
In case of death, or declaration of there being cause for resignation, or other kind of absolute impossibility, or which cannot be ended before the completion of the time remaining of the constitutional period, the Vice President in the first ten days of his incumbency shall issue the proper orders to proceed, within the period of sixty days, to a new election of President in the manner prescribed by the Constitution and by the electoral law.
Article 67
The President cannot leave the territory of the Republic during the time of his incumbency, without the consent of Congress.
Article 68
The President shall vacate office on the same day that completes the six years for which the exercise of his powers lasts and the newly elected will succeed him.
Article 69
If the President-elect finds himself prevented from taking possession of the office he shall be substituted meanwhile, under the title of Vice President of the Republic, by the President of the Senate, and, in his default, by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, and, in his default, by the President of the Supreme Court.
But if the impediment of the President-elect be absolute or appears as if it would last indefinitely or for a longer period than that prescribed for the exercise of the Presidency, the Vice President, in the ten days following the declaration which Congress must make, shall issue the proper orders to proceed within the period of sixty days to a new election in the manner prescribed by the Constitution and by the electoral law.
Article 70
The President-elect on taking possession of the office in the presence of both branches of Congress shall make oath or promise before the President of the Senate faithfully to discharge the office of President of the Republic, to preserve the integrity and independence of the nation and to observe and cause to be observed the Constitution and the laws.
Article 71
To the President of the Republic is confided the administration and government of the State, and his authority is extended to all that has for its purpose the preservation of public order in the interior and the exterior security to the Republic, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws.
Article 72
Special attributes of the President are:
- To concur in the making of the laws according to the Constitution, to approve and to promulgate the same.
- To prescribe regulations, decrees and instructions that he may deem suitable for the execution of the laws.
- To extend the ordinary sessions of Congress and to call extraordinary sessions.
- To watch over the ministerial conduct of the judges and other employees of the judicial power, and for this purpose to request the Supreme Court that, if conformable, it may determine the fact of their bad conduct, or the office of the Public Minister that it institute disciplinary measures before the competent tribunal, or that, if there be sufficient grounds, it file the suitable accusation.
- To appoint at will the Ministers of State, officials of the Ministries, Diplomatic agents, Intendentes and Governors.Appointment of Ambassadors and Diplomatic Ministers shall be submitted to the approval of the Senate, but they and other officials mentioned in this number are within the exclusive confidence of the President of the Republic and are to be kept in their positions while they enjoy the said confidence.
- To appoint the Magistrates of the Superior Courts of Justice and Scholastic Judges.
- To supply the other civil and military employees that the laws may determine, conformably to the Administrative Statute and to confer, with the approval of the Senate, the offices or grades of colonel, captain of the navy and other superior offices of the army and navy.On the field of battle he may confer these superior military offices at his own instance.
- To dismiss employees designated by himself for incompetency or other cause that may render them unuseful or prejudicial to the service, with the approval of the Senate if they be heads of bureaus or superior employees, if they be subaltern employees in conformity with the organic laws of each service.
- To grant pensions, retirement pay and widow and orphan benefits according to the laws.
- To care for the collection of the public revenues and to decree their expenditure in accordance with law.
- To grant juridicial personality to private corporations and to cancel the same, to approve their articles of government, to reject the same and to accept amendments.
- To grant private pardons. Officials accused by the Chamber of Deputies and tried by the Senate can be pardoned by Congress only.
- To dispose of the sea and land forces, to organize and distribute them as he may find convenient.
- To command in person the sea and land forces with the approval of the Senate. In this case the President of the Republic may reside at any place occupied by Chilean arms.
- To declare war with the prior authorization of law.
- To maintain political relations with foreign powers, receive their agents, admit their consuls, conduct negotiations, make preliminary stipulations, conclude and sign all treaties of peace, alliance, truce, neutrality, commerce, concord and other conventions. Treaties before their ratification must be presented to the approval of Congress. The discussion and deliberations on these matters shall be in secret if the President of the Republic so demands.
- To declare in a state of assembly one or more provinces invaded or menaced in case of foreign war, and in a state of siege one or several points of the Republic in case of foreign attack.In case of interior disturbance the declaration of one or more places being in a state of siege belongs to Congress, but if Congress be not in session, the President may make it for a determined period.
If on the meeting of Congress the period named be not expired, the declaration made by the President of the Republic shall be understood as a proposal of law.
Through the declaration of a state of siege, there is conceded to the President of the Republic only the authority to transfer persons from one department to another and to confine them in their own houses, or in places other than jails, or intended for the confinement or imprisonment of ordinary criminals.
Measures taken on account of the state of siege shall have no greater duration than the siege, but thereby shall not be infringed the constitutional guaranties granted to Deputies and Senators.
Ministers of State
Article 73
The number of the Ministers and their respective departments shall be determined by law.
Article 74
In order to be named Minister the qualifications exacted to be a Deputy are required.
Article 75
All orders of the President of the Republic must be signed by the Minister of the respective department, and are not to be obeyed if without this essential requisite.
Article 76
Every Minister shall be personally responsible for the acts he may sign, and in solidum for those he may subscribe or agree to with other Ministers.
Article 77
As soon as Congress shall convene in ordinary session the Ministers must render an account to the President of the Republic of the state of the Nation in regard to the business of the department that each one has under his charge, in order that the President may in turn submit the same to Congress.
For the same purpose they are obliged to present to him the annual budget of the expenditures that should be made in their respective departments and render an account to him of the disbursement of the amounts decreed to meet the expenditures of the preceding year.
Article 78
The Ministers may, when they deem it expedient, attend sessions of the Chamber of Deputies or of the Senate and take part in the debates, with preference in speaking, but without the right to vote.
