Luxembourg 1868 Constitution (reviewed 2009)

Chapter IV. Of the Chamber of Deputies

Article 50

The Chamber of Deputies represents the country. The Deputies vote without referring to their constituents and may only have in view the general interest of the Grand Duchy.

Article 51

1. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is placed under a regime of parliamentary democracy.
2. The organization of the Chamber is regulated by law.
3. The Chamber is composed of 60 Deputies. A law adopted under the provisions of Article 114, paragraph 2 establishes the number of Deputies to be elected in each of the circumscriptions.
4. The election is direct.
5. The Deputies are elected on the basis of universal suffrage pure and simple, on [a party] list ballot, following the rules of proportional representation, conforming to the principle of the smallest electoral quotient and following the rules to be determined by the law.
6. The country is divided into four electoral circumscriptions:
   • the South with the Cantons of Esch-sur-Alzette and Capellen;
     
     the Centre with the Cantons of Luxembourg and Mersch;

     the North with the Cantons of Diekirch, Redange, Wiltz, Clervaux and Vianden;

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     the East with the Cantons of Grevenmacher, Remich and Echternach.

7. The electors may be called to decide by way of referendum in the cases and under the conditions to be determined by the law.

Article 52

To be an elector, it is necessary:

1. to be a Luxembourger [masculine] or Luxembourger [feminine];
2. to enjoy civil and political rights;
3. to have completed 18 years of age;

To these three qualities shall be added those determined by the law. No tax condition may be required.

To be eligible, it is necessary:

1. to be a Luxembourger [masculine] or Luxembourger [feminine];
2. to enjoy civil and political rights;
3. to have completed 18 years of age;
4. to be domiciled in the Grand Duchy.

No other condition of eligibility may be imposed.

Article 53

[The following] may neither be electors nor eligible:

1. [persons] sentenced to criminal punishments;
2. those who, in a correctional matter, are deprived of the right to vote by [their] sentence;
3. [persons] of majority under guardianship.

No other case of exclusion may be specified.

The right to vote may be restored by the way of pardon to the persons who have lost it by penal sentence.

Article 54

1. The mandate of Deputy is incompatible:
   1. with the functions of [a] member of the Government;
   2. with those of [a] member of the Council of State;
   3. with those of [a] magistrate of the Judicial Order;
   4. with those of [a] member of the Court of Accounts;
   5. with those of [a] district commissioners;
   6. with those of [a] collector or accounting officer of the State;
   7. with those of [a] military career in active service.
2. The functionaries who find themselves in a case of incompatibility have the right to choose between the mandate confided in them [or] their functions.
3. A Deputy who has been called to the functions of [a] member of the Government and who relinquishes these functions is reinstated of right as first substitute on the list on which he was elected.This will be the same for the substitute Deputy who, called to the function of [a] member of the Government, renounces the mandate of Deputy devolving to him in the duration of these functions.

   In the event of a dispute between several [persons] having the right, reinstatement shall be made in order of votes obtained at the elections.

Article 55

The incompatibilities specified in the preceding article are not an impediment to the others which the law establishes in the future.

Article 56

The Deputies are elected for five years.

Article 57

1. The Chamber verifies the credentials [pouvoirs] of its members and judge the disputes which arise on the subject.
2. On entering into their functions, they take the following oath:”I swear fidelity to the Grand Duke, obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the State.”
3. This oath is taken at a public sitting presided over [entre les mains] by the President of the Chamber.

Article 58

The Deputy, appointed by the Government to a salaried post which he accepts, ceases immediately to sit and resumes his functions only by virtue of a new election.

Article 59

All the laws are submitted to a second vote, unless the Chamber, in agreement with the Council of State, in a public sitting decides otherwise. – There shall be an interval of at least three months between the two votes.

Article 60

At each session, the Chamber appoints its President and its Vice Presidents and composes its Bureau.

Article 61

The sittings of the Chamber are public, save the exceptions determined by its regulations.

Article 62

Every resolution is taken with the absolute majority of votes. In case the votes are equally divided, the measure under deliberation is rejected.

The Chamber may only take a resolution when the majority of its members are present.

Article 63

[Abrogated]

Article 64

The Chamber has the right of inquiry. The law regulates exercise of this right.

Article 65

The Chamber votes on the whole of a law. The vote always takes place by roll call.

At the demand of five Deputies at least, the vote on the whole of a law may proceed by a vote concerning one or more articles of a law.

Vote by proxy is admitted. However no one may receive more than on proxy.

Article 66

The Chamber has the right to amend and divide the articles and amendments proposed.

Article 67

It is forbidden to present petitions in person to the Chamber.

The Chamber has the right to refer to the members of the Government the petitions which are addressed to it. – The members of the Government shall provide explanations of their contents, whenever the Chamber demands it.

The Chamber does not concern itself with any petition having individual interests for its object unless it is aimed at redressing grievances resulting from illegal acts of the Government or the authorities or unless the decision to intervene lies [within] the competence of the Chamber.

Article 68

No action, neither civil, nor penal, can be directed against a Deputy as a result of the opinion or vote cast by him in the exercise of his functions.

Article 69

With the exception of the cases foreseen by Article 68, the Deputies may be prosecuted in penal matter[s], for the duration of the session.

Likewise, the arrest of a Deputy for the duration of the Session is, except in the case of flagrante delicto, submitted to the previous authorization of the Chamber

The authorization of the Chamber is not required for the execution of penalties, even those which deprive freedom, pronounced against a Deputy.

Article 70

The Chamber determines in it regulations the manner in which it exercises its attributions.

Article 71

The sittings of the Chamber are held in the place of the residence of the administration of the Grand Duchy.

Article 72

1. The Chamber meets each year in ordinary session at the time specified by [its] regulations.
2. The Grand Duke may convoke the Chamber extraordinarily; he must do so on the demand of one-third of the Deputies.
3. Every session is opened and closed by the Grand Duke in person, or in his name by [his] proxy appointed for that purpose.

Article 73

[Abrogated]

Article 74

The Grand Duke can dissolve the Chamber.

New elections are held at the latest within three months of the dissolution.

Article 75

The members of the Chamber of Deputies shall receive, in addition to their traveling expenses, an indemnity, of which the amount and conditions are determined by the law.