Constitution

Republic of the Congo 2001 Constitution

Table of Contents

TITLE VII. OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE POWER AND THE LEGISLATIVE POWER

Article 114

The President of the Republic cannot dissolve the National Assembly.

The National Assembly cannot dismiss the President of the Republic.

Article 115

The President of each chamber of the Parliament informs the President of the Republic of the agenda of the sessions.

Article 116

The inscription of the bills and of the proposals of law is made in the order of their deposit with the Bureau of each chamber.

However, the bills and the proposals of law, of which urgency is recognized, are examined with priority.

Article 117

The Ministers have access to the sittings of the Parliament. They are heard at the request of a Deputy or of a Senator, of a commission or at their own demand. They may be assisted by experts.

Article 118

The initiative of the laws belongs, concurrently, to the President of the Republic and to the members of the Parliament.

The bills of law, deliberated in the Council of Ministers after the opinion of the Supreme Court, are deposited with the Bureau of one or the other chamber.

The proposals of law, of which the redaction is ordered by the Parliament, are, before deliberation and vote, communicated for his information to the President of the Republic.

Article 119

The proposals of law and the amendments, presented by the members of the Parliament and tending to augment or to diminish the expenses, must be paired with proposals showing the correspondent receipts or savings.

Article 120

The bills, the proposals of law and the amendments that are not of the domain of the law, are not receivable. The irreceivability is pronounced by the President of the interested chamber, after deliberation of the Bureau.

In the case of dispute, the Constitutional Court, referred to the matter by the President of the Republic or by the President of the interested chamber, decides within a time period of fifteen days.

Article 121

The discussion of the bills of law focuses on, before the first chamber referred to the matter, the text presented by the President of the Republic.

A chamber, referred to the matter of a text voted by the other chamber, deliberates on the text that is transmitted to it.

Article 122

The bills and proposals of law are sent to one of the permanent commissions of which the number is determined by the internal regulations of each chamber.

The bills and proposals of law can, at the demand of the President of the Republic or of the chamber referred to the matter, be sent, for examination, to the special commissions designated to this effect.

Article 123

The President of the Republic and the members of Parliament have the right of amendment.

Article 124

Any bill or any proposal of law is examined, successively, by the two chambers with a view to the adoption of an identical text.

When, following a disagreement between the two chambers, a bill or a proposal of law could not be adopted after one reading by each chamber, the President of the Republic has the faculty to provoke the meeting of a mixed paritary commission, given the charge of proposing a text on the provisions remaining in discussion.

The text, elaborated by the mixed paritary commission, can be submitted by the President of the Republic for approval to the two chambers.

No amendment is receivable, except with the agreement of the President of the Republic.

If the mixed paritary commission does not achieve the adoption of a common text, the President of the Republic can, after a new reading by the National Assembly and by the Senate, demand of the National Assembly to definitively decide.

In this case, the National Assembly can retake, either the text elaborated by the mixed paritary commission, or the last text voted by it modified, the case arising, by one or several amendments adopted by the Senate.

Article 125

The laws to which the Constitution confers the character of organic laws, except the law of finance, are voted and modified in the following conditions:

  • the bill or the proposal of law is only submitted for deliberation and vote to the first chamber referred to the matter at the expiration of a time period of fifteen days after its deposit;
    the procedure of Article 124 is applicable. However, lacking an agreement between the two chambers, the text may only be adopted by the National Assembly in its final reading with the absolute majority of its members;

    the organic laws may not be promulgated until after the declaration by the Constitutional Court of their conformity with the Constitution.

Article 126

The Parliament is referred to the matter of the bill of the law of finance at the latest one week before the opening of the session of October.

The bill of the law of finance specifies the necessary receipts for the complete coverage of the expenses.

Article 127

If the Parliament has not voted the budget at the end of the session of October, the President of the Republic demands an extraordinary session of which the duration cannot exceed fifteen days.

Passing this time, the budget is established, definitively, by ordinance after the opinion of the Constitutional Court.

If the Parliament has not been referred to the matter of the bill of the law of finance within the time periods specified in Article 126 and the budget has not been voted in the course of this first extraordinary session, a second extraordinary session is convoked at the demand of the President of the Republic.

Article 128

An organic law regulates the mode of presentation of the budget.

The Parliament regulates the accounts of the Nation. It is assisted, to this effect, by the Court of Accounts and of Budgetary Discipline.

Article 129

The bill of law of regulation is presented and distributed, at the latest, at the end of the year that follows the year of execution of the budget.

Article 130

The declaration of war is authorized by the Parliament meeting in Congress. When, following exceptional circumstances, the Parliament cannot sit usefully, the decision on the declaration of war is taken in the Council of Ministers by the President of the Republic. He informs the Nation immediately of it.

Article 131

When an imminent peril appears, resulting from grave threats to the public order or in the case of events presenting, by their nature and their gravity, the character of public calamity or of national disaster, the President of the Republic can decree, in the Council of Ministers, the state of urgency on all or part of the national territory.

When an imminent peril appears, resulting from, either a characterized foreign threat, or from an armed insurrection, or from grave acts occurring during the state of emergency, the President of the Republic can decree, in the Council of Ministers, the state of siege.

In both cases, the President of the Republic informs the Nation by a message. The Parliament meets of plain right in Congress, if it is not in session, to, as need be, authorize the extension of the state of emergency or of the state of siege for more than fifteen days.

When, following exceptional circumstances, the Parliament cannot sit, the President of the Republic can decide on the maintenance of the state of urgency or the state of siege. He informs the Nation of it by a message.

Article 132

The President of the Republic can, to execute his program, demand of the Parliament to vote on a law authorizing him to take by ordinance, during a limited time period, the measures that are normally of the domain of the law.

This authorization is granted with the simple majority of the members of the Parliament.

The demand indicates the matters in which the President of the Republic wishes to take the ordinances.

The ordinances are taken in the Council of Ministers, after the opinion of the Supreme Court. They enter into force from their publication but become lapsed if the bill of the law of ratification is not presented to the Parliament before the date established by the enabling law.

When the demand for habilitation is rejected, the President of the Republic can, on a conforming decision of the Constitutional Court, legislate by ordinance. At the expiration of the time period mentioned in the first paragraph of this Article, the ordinances may only be modified by the law in their provisions that are of the legislative domain.