Title IV. Of the Legislative Power
Of the Organization of the Parliament
Article 60
The Parliament is composed of two Chambers, the Chamber of Representatives and the Chamber of Councilors. Their members hold their mandate from the Nation. Their right to vote is personal and may not be delegated.
The opposition is an essential component of both Chambers. It participates in the functions of legislation and of control such as [they are] provided for, notably within this Title.
Article 61
Any member of one of both Chambers who renounces his political affiliation [appartenance] in the name of which he was presented [as a] candidate at the elections[,] or to the parliamentary group to which he is affiliated, is discharged from his mandate.
The Constitutional Court, referred to [the matter] by the president of the Chamber concerned, declares the vacancy of the seat and this, in accordance with the provision of the internal regulations of the Chamber concerned, which establishes equally the time periods and the procedure of referring the Constitutional Court to [the matter].
Article 62
The members of the Chamber of Representatives are elected for five years by universal direct suffrage. The legislature concludes on the opening of the session of October of the fifth year that follows the election of the Chamber.
The number of representatives, the electoral regime, the principles of electoral division, the conditions of eligibility, the case of incompatibilities, the rules of limitation of accumulation of mandates and the organization of electoral disputes, are established by an organic law.
The President of the Chamber of Representatives and the members of the Bureau, as well as the presidents of the Permanent Commissions and their bureaus, are elected at the beginning of the legislature, [and] again in the third year, at the time of the session of April and for the time remaining to cover said legislature.
The election of the members of the Bureau takes place with the proportional representation of the groups.
Article 63
The Chamber of Councilors is composed of a minimum of 90 members and of a maximum of 120, elected by indirect universal suffrage for six years, according to the following division:
- three-fifths of the members represent the local collectivities. This component [effectif] is divided between the regions of the Kingdom, in proportion to their respective populations and in observance of equity between the regions. The one-third reserved to the region is elected at the level of each region by the Regional Council [Conseil regional] from among its members. The two-thirds remaining are elected by an electoral college at the level of the region by the members of the communal, prefectural and provincial councils;
two-fifths of the members elected in each region by the electoral colleges composed of those elected to the Professional Chambers [Chambers professionnelles] and of the most representative professional organizations of employers, and of the elected members to the national echelon by an electoral college composed of the representatives of the salaried [workers].
The number of the members of the Chamber of Councilors and their electoral regime, the number of them to be elected by each of the electoral colleges, the division of seats per region, the conditions of eligibility and the case of incompatibilities, the rules of limitation of accumulation of mandates and the organization of electoral disputes, are established by an organic law.
The President of the Chamber of Councilors and the members of its Bureau as well as the presidents of the Permanent Commissions and their bureaus, are elected at the beginning of the legislature, [and] again at the time of half of the legislature.
The election of the members of the Bureau takes place with the proportional representation of the groups.
Article 64
No member of the Parliament may be prosecuted, investigated, arrested, detained or judged on the occasion of an opinion or of a vote emitted by him in the exercise of his functions, except in case where the opinion expressed challenges the monarchic form of the State or the Muslim religion or constitutes an infringement of the due respect for the King.
Article 65
The Parliament sits during two sessions per year. The King presides over the opening of the first session which commences on the second Friday of October. The second session is opened on the second Friday of April.
When the Parliament has sat four months at least, in the course of each session, cloture can be pronounced by decree.
Article 66
The Parliament can meet in extraordinary session, either by decree, or at the demand of one-third of the members of the Chamber of Representatives or of the majority of those of the Chamber of Councilors.
The extraordinary sessions of the Parliament are held on the basis of a specific agenda. When this latter is exhausted, the session is closed by decree.
Article 67
The ministers have access to each Chamber and to their commissions. They may be assisted by the commissioners designated by them.
Other than the Permanent Commissions mentioned in the preceding paragraph, commissions of inquiry may be created[,] at the initiative of the King or at the demand of one-third of the members of the Chamber of Representatives, or of one-third of the members of the Chamber of Councilors, formed to collect elements of information on specific matters [faits] or on the management of public services, enterprises and establishments, and to submit their conclusions to the Chamber concerned.
Commissions of Inquiry may not be created when the matters have given rise to judicial prosecutions and as long as these prosecutions are underway [en cours]. If a commission has already been created, its mission terminates on the opening of a judicial inquiry [information] concerning the matters which motivated its creation.
The commissions of inquiry have a temporary character. Their mission terminates by the deposit of their report to the Bureau of the Chamber concerned and, the case arising, by the referral of [the matter] to justice by the President of the said Chamber.
A public sitting is reserved by the Chamber concerned for the discussion of the reports of the commissions of inquiry.
An organic law establishes the modalities of functioning of these commissions.
Article 68
The sittings of the Chambers of the Parliament are public. The complete record of the debates is published in the Bulletin officiel of the Parliament.
Each Chamber can sit in secret committee, at the demand of the Head of Government or of one-third of its members.
The meetings of the Commissions of the Parliament are secret. The internal regulations of both Chambers of the Parliament establish the cases and the rules permitting public sittings of the Commissions to be held.
The Parliament holds joint [communes] sittings of both Chambers, in particular in the following cases:
- the opening by the King of the parliamentary session, the second Friday of the month of October, and the address of Royal Messages destined to the Parliament;
the adoption of the revision of the Constitution in accordance with the provisions of Article 174; the declarations of the Head of Government; the presentation of the bill of the law of finance of the year; the speeches [discourse] of the foreign Heads of State and of Government.
The Head of Government can equally demand[,] of the President of the Chamber of Representatives and of the President of the Chamber of Councilors[,] to hold joint meetings of both Chambers, for the presentation of information bearing on the matters which possess an important national character.
The joint meetings are held under the presidency of the President of the Chamber of Representatives. The internal regulations of both Chambers determine the modalities of the rules of the holding of these meetings.
Other than the common sittings, the Permanent Commissions of the Parliament may hold joint meetings to hear information bearing on the matters which possess an important national character and this, in accordance with the rules established by the internal regulations of both Chambers.
Article 69
Each Chamber establishes and votes its internal regulations. However, they may not be implemented until after having been declared by the Constitutional Court [as] conforming to the provisions of this Constitution.
Both Chambers of the Parliament are held to take into consideration, during the drafting of their respective internal regulations, the imperatives of their harmonization and their complementariness, in a manner to guarantee the efficiency of the parliamentary work.
The internal regulations establish notably:
- the rules of composition, of functioning and of affiliation concerning the parliamentary groups [groupes] and sub-groups [groupements], and the specific rights recognized to opposition groups;
the obligations of effective participation of the members in the work of the commissions and of the plenary sittings, and including the sanctions applicable in case of absence; the number, the attributions and the organization of the Permanent Commissions, of reserving of the presidency of one or two of these commissions[,] at least[,] to the opposition, under reserve of the provisions of Article 10 of this Constitution.
Of the Powers of the Parliament
Article 70
The Parliament exercises the legislative power.
It votes the laws, controls the action of the government and evaluates the public policies.
An enabling law [loi d’habilitation] may authorize the government, for a limited time and in view of a specific objective, to take by decree the measures which are normally of the domain of the law. The decrees enter into force on their publication, but they must be submitted, in the term of time established by the enabling law, to the ratification of the Parliament. The enabling law becomes lapsed in the case of the dissolution of the two Chambers of Parliament or of one among them.
Article 71
[The following] are of the domain of the law, other than the matters that are expressly devolved on it by other Articles of the Constitution:
- the fundamental freedoms and rights provided for in the Preamble and in the other Articles of this Constitution;
the statute of the family and the civil estate; the principles and rules of the health system; the regime of the broadcast media and of the press[,] in all their forms; amnesty; nationality and the status [condition] of foreigners; the determination of infractions and the penalties which are applicable to them; the judicial organization and the creation of new categories of jurisdictions; the civil procedure and the criminal procedure; the penitentiary regime; the general statute of the public function; the fundamental guarantees accorded to the civil and military functionaries; the statute of the services and forces of maintenance of order; the regime of the territorial collectivities and the principles of delimitation of their territorial resort [ressort]; the electoral regime of the territorial collectivities and the principles of dividing of the electoral circumscriptions; the fiscal regime and the basis [assiette], tax and the modalities of collection of imposts; the juridical regime of the issuance of the currency and the statute of the central bank; the customs [douanes] regime; the regime of civil and commercial obligations, the law of societies and cooperatives; real rights and the regimes of public, private and collective real property; the transport regime; the relations of work, of social security, work [related] accidents and vocational [professionnelle] [related] illnesses; the regime of banks, of insurance companies and of mutual [insurance]; the regime of the technologies of information and of communication; urbanism and land management [amenagement du territoire]; the rules relative to the management of the environment, to the protection of the natural resources and to lasting development; the regime of waters and forests and of fishing; the determination of the orientations and the general organization of teaching, of scientific research and of vocational [professionnelle] instruction; the creation of public establishments and of all other moral persons of public law; the nationalization of enterprises and the regime of privatizations;
Other than the matters specified in the preceding paragraph, the Parliament is enabled to vote the framework laws [lois-cadres] concerning the fundamental objectives of the economic, social, environmental and cultural activity of the State.
Article 72
The matters other than those which are of the domain of the law belong to the regulatory domain.
Article 73
The texts taken in legislative form may be modified by decree, after the conforming opinion of the Constitutional Court, when they would intervene in a domain devolved to the exercise of the regulatory power.
Article 74
The state of siege can be declared, by Dahir countersigned by the Head of Government, for a time of thirty days. This time may only be extended by the law.
Article 75
The Parliament votes the law of finance, deposited by priority before the Chamber of Representatives, within the conditions provided for by an organic law. This determines the nature of the information, documents and data [donnees] necessary to enrich the parliamentary debates on the bill of the law of finance.
The Parliament votes one sole time [on] the expenditures of investment necessary, within the domain of development, for the realization of the plans of strategic development and of multi-annual programs, established by the government[,] which informs the Parliament of it. The expenditures so approved are automatically applied [reconduites] for the duration [pendant la duree] of these plans and programs. Only the government is enabled to deposit the bills of law intended to modify the expenditures approved within the aforementioned framework.
If, at the end of the budgetary year, the law of finance is not voted or is not promulgated because of its submission to the Constitutional Court in application of Article 132 of this Constitution, the government opens, by decree, the credits necessary for the provision [marche] of the public services and for the exercise of their mission, as a function of the budgetary proposals submitted for approval.
In this case, the receipts continue to be collected in accordance with the legislative and regulatory provisions in force concerning them with the exception, however, of the receipts of which the suppression is proposed in the bill of the law of finance. As for those for which the said bill specifies a diminishment of tax, they will collect the new tax proposed.
Article 76
The government submits annually to the Parliament a law of regulation of the law of finance[,] in the course of the second fiscal year [exercise] which follows that of the execution of said law of finance. This law includes the balance-sheet [bilan] of the budgets of investments of which the term is ending [arrivee a echeance].
Article 77
The Parliament and the government see to the preservation of the balance of the finances of the State.
The government may oppose, in substantiated manner, the receivability [irrecevabilite] of any proposal or amendment formulated by the members of Parliament when their adoption could have as a consequence, in relation to the law of finance, either a diminishment of the public resources, or the creation or aggravation of a public expenditure [charge].
Of the Exercise of the Legislative Power
Article 78
The initiative of law belongs concurrently to the Head of Government and to the members of the Parliament.
The bills of law are deposited in priority with the Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives. However, the bills of law particularly relative to the Territorial Collectivities, to regional development and to social affairs are deposited in priority with the Bureau of the Chamber of Councilors.
Article 79
The government may oppose the receivability of any proposal or amendment which is not of the domain of the law.
In case of disagreement, the Constitutional Court decides, within a time of eight days, at the demand of the President of one or the other Chamber of the Parliament or of the Head of Government.
Article 80
The bills and proposals of law are submitted for examination to the commissions, of which [such] activity is pursued between the sessions.
Article 81
The government can adopt [prendre], in the interval of the sessions, with the agreement of the commissions concerned of the two Chambers, decree-laws which must be, in the course of the following ordinary session of the Parliament, submitted to the ratification of it.
The bill of decree-law is deposited with the Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives. It is examined successively by the concerned commissions of the two Chambers with a view to reaching a common decision within a time of six days. In default [of this], the decision is taken by the commission concerned of the Chamber of Representatives.
Article 82
The agenda of each Chamber is established by its Bureau. It includes the bills [projets] of law and the proposals [propositions] of law, by priority and in the order that the government has established.
One day per month at least is reserved for the examination of the proposals of law of which are [of] the opposition.
Article 83
The members of each Chamber of the Parliament and the government have the right of amendment. After the opening of the debate, the government can oppose the examination of any amendment which has not been previously submitted to the interested commission.
If the government demands it, the Chamber referred to a text for discussion, decides by one sole vote on all or part of it, only retaining in it the amendments proposed or accepted by the government. The concerned Chamber can oppose this procedure with the majority of its members.
Article 84
Any bill or proposal of law is examined successively by the two Chambers of the Parliament to reach the adoption of an identical text. The Chamber of Representatives deliberates first and successively on the bills of law and on the proposals of law initiated by its members; the Chamber of Councilors deliberates first and successively on the bills of law as well as on the proposals of law initiated by its members. One Chamber referred to a text voted by the other Chamber, deliberates on the text which has been transmitted to it.
The Chamber of Representatives adopts in last resort the text examined. The vote may only take place with the absolute majority of the members present, whenever it deals with a text concerning the territorial collectivities and the domains related to [afferents] regional development and to social affairs.
Article 85
The bills and proposals of organic law are only submitted to deliberation by the Chamber of Representatives at the end of a time of ten days after their deposit with the Bureau of the Chamber and following the same procedure specified in Article 84. They are definitively adopted with the majority of the members present of said Chamber. Nevertheless, when it deals with a bill or proposal of organic law relative to the Chamber of Councilors concerning the territorial collectivities, the vote takes place with the majority of the members of the Chamber of Representatives.
The organic laws relative to the Chamber of Councilors must be voted in the same terms by both Chambers of the Parliament.
The organic laws may only be promulgated after the Constitutional Court has decided on their conformity with the Constitution.
Article 86
The bills of organic laws provided for by this Constitution must have been submitted for approval to the Parliament within a time not exceeding the duration of the first legislature following the promulgation of said Constitution.
