TITLE VI. OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Article 59
The representative assembly of the Republic of Senegal has [portent] the name of [the] National Assembly. It exercises the Legislative Power. It votes, alone, the laws, controls the action of the Government and evaluates the public policies.
The members of the National Assembly have the title of Deputy.
The Deputies are elected by universal direct suffrage. Their mandate is of five years. It may only be abridged by dissolution of the National Assembly.
The Senegalese abroad elect Deputies.
The courts and tribunals see to the regularity of the electoral campaign and of the ballot within the conditions determined by an organic law.
An organic law establishes the number of members of the National Assembly, their indemnities, the conditions of eligibility, the regime of the ineligibilities and of the incompatibilities.
Article 60
Any deputy who resigns from his party in the course of [a] legislature is automatically relieved of his mandate. He is replaced within the conditions determined by an organic law.
Article 61
No member of the National Assembly may be prosecuted, investigated, arrested, detained or judged as the result of the opinions or votes emitted by him in the exercise of his functions.
No member of the National Assembly may, during the duration of the sessions, be prosecuted or arrested, in a criminal or correctional matter, without the authorization of the National Assembly.
A member of the National Assembly may not, out of session, be arrested without the authorization of the National Assembly, except in [the] case of crime or of flagrante delicto, as provided for by the preceding paragraph or of definitive criminal condemnation.
The prosecution of a member of the National Assembly or his de facto detention by such prosecution is suspended if the National Assembly requires it.
The member of the National Assembly who is made the object of a definitive criminal condemnation is removed [radié] from the list of parliamentarians on the demand of the Minister of Justice.
Article 62
The organic law concerning [the] Internal Regulations of the National Assembly determines:
- the composition, the rules of the functioning of the Bureau, as well as the powers, prerogatives and duration of the mandate of its President;
the number, the mode of designation, the composition, the role and the competence of its permanent commissions, without prejudice to the right, of the National Assembly, of creating special temporary commissions; the organization of the administrative services placed under the authority of the President of the Assembly, assisted by an administrative secretary general; the conditions of constitution of the parliamentary groups and of the affiliation of the Deputies to said groups; the disciplinary regime of its members; the different modes of [the] ballot, to the exclusion of those expressly provided for by the Constitution; in a general fashion, all the rules having for [their] object the functioning of the National Assembly within the framework of its constitutional competence.
Article 63
With the exception of the date of the opening of the first session of the newly elected National Assembly, which is established by the President of the Republic, the National Assembly establishes the date of opening and the duration of the sole [unique] session of the National Assembly. These are, however, governed by the rules below.
The National Assembly meets of plain right in one sole ordinary session which commences within the first two-week period [quinzaine] of the month of October and which terminates in the second two-week period of the month of June of the year following.
In [the] case where the ordinary session or the extraordinary session is closed without the National Assembly having established the date of opening of the next ordinary session, this is established in a timely fashion by the Bureau of the National Assembly.
The National Assembly, also, meets in extraordinary session, on a specific agenda, either:
- on the written demand of more than half of the Deputies, addressed to the President of the National Assembly;
on the decision of the President of the Republic, alone or on proposal of the Prime Minister.
However, the duration of each extraordinary session may not exceed fifteen days.
The extraordinary sessions are closed once the agenda is exhausted.
Article 64
The vote of the members of the National Assembly is personal. Any imperative mandate is null.
The organic law may authorize, exceptionally, the delegation of [the] vote. In this case, no one may receive delegation of more than one mandate.
Article 65
The National Assembly may delegate to its commissions of delegation the power to take the measures that are of the domain of the law.
This delegation is effected by a resolution of the National Assembly[,] of which the President of the Republic is immediately informed.
Within the limits of time and of competence established by the resolution provided for above, the commission of delegations takes the deliberations which are promulgated as laws.
These deliberations are deposited with the Bureau of the National Assembly. In default of having been modified by the National Assembly within the fifteen days of the sessions, they become definitive.
Article 66
The sittings of the National Assembly are public. Closed [sitting] is pronounced only exceptionally and for a limited duration.
The complete record of the debates as well as the parliamentary documents are published in the Journal des Débats [Journal of Debates] or in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].
TITLE VI bis. OF THE HIGH COUNCIL OF THE TERRITORIAL COLLECTIVITIES
Article 66-1
The High Council of the Territorial Collectivities is a consultative Assembly. It gives its substantiated opinion on the policies of decentralization and of territorial development [amenagement du territoire].
An organic law determines the mode of designation, the number and the title of the members, as well as the conditions of organization and of functioning of the institution.
