Constitution for new NS country

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Contents 1 TITLE VILegislative Branch 1.1 Chapter IIThe Chamber of Deputies 1.2 Chapter IIIThe Senate 1.3 Chapter IVCongress in Joint Session

[edit] TITLE VI
Legislative Branch

Article. The legislative power of the nation shall be exercised by a Congress composed of two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Article. In elections of deputies and senators a method shall be used, that, in practice, will result in giving an effective proportionality in representation to opinions and to political parties.

Article. Deputies and senators represent the nation and are not subject to any imperative mandate.

Article. Verification of the elections of deputies and senators and cognizance of nullification protests that may be brought against them, are under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

Article. By its own right Congress shall meet regularly in the capital of the Republic on July 15 of each year, and shall hold sixty sessions. The number of sessions may be prolonged by thirty more by resolution by both chambers enacted on their own initiative or at the request of the executive branch.

Article. By convocation by the executive branch and on the date indicated by it, Congress shall meet in special sessions to deal solely with matters that the executive branch submits to it, and shall close upon completing its mission.

Congress shall also meet in special session when so decided by an absolute majority of its regular members, who shall make the convocation through the president of Congress or directly.

Article. If Congress is unable to meet on the dates indicated, it shall do so as soon as possible.

Article. The chambers shall open and close their sessions simultaneously and shall hold their sessions in such a way that the number held by either one shall not exceed the number held by the other by more than three, unless otherwise agreed upon by both.

Any action taken in either chamber in contravention of this provision is void.

Article. The President of the Republic shall attend the opening of the regular sessions of Congress in united chambers and shall present to it a report on the acts of his administration. He may delegate this duty to the Minister of Government. This formality is not essential for Congress to exercise its functions legitimately.

Article. The quorum for each chamber to hold its meetings shall be the absolute majority of its membership, and for Congress in joint session this shall be the sum of the quorums of each of the chambers.

Article. A decision in either chamber or in Congress in united chambers requires the vote of an absolute majority of the members present, except in those cases in which this Constitution requires some other kind of majority.

Article. Five days in advance of the date fixed for a regular session the chambers shall follow a preparatory procedure in accordance with formalities specified in their respective regulations.

Article. If Congress is not installed on the day indicated due to lack of a quorum in either chamber or in both, the representatives present, as a preparatory board, shall compel the absentees to attend, under the penalties established in their respective regulations.

Article. In the event of a temporary or permanent absence of a member of Congress, he shall be replaced by the corresponding alternate. If the latter is absent, the president of the chamber shall call upon any other alternate of the same political party as the absentee, until the list is exhausted, in accordance with the formalities specified in the respective regulations.

In the event that the designated alternates refuse to or cannot attend the chamber, the president thereof shall convoke a by-election to fill the vacancy.

Article. Any meeting or action of members of Congress for the purpose of exercising the legislative power, held otherwise than in accordance with the constitutional provisions, shall be void.

Article. The following may not be elected as regular or alternate members of the legislative branch:

1) Members of the executive branch, the judicial branch, the electoral branch, the Public Ministry, the Comptrollership General, the departmental or municipal boards and councils, or of salaried councils or boards of directors of the autonomous entities until six months after permanent separation from their posts;

2) Members of the clergy;

3) Persons on active military service;

4) Persons who are part of an enterprise that operates a public service or has obtained a concession from the government, or are attorneys, representatives, or advisers of such an enterprise; and

5) Those whose citizenship rights are suspended.

Article. Deputies and senators, both regular and alternates, from the time of their election, enjoy the following prerogatives:

1) Personal immunity against trial for any kind of offense, except as provided by the Constitution. This immunity cannot be waived;

2) Immunity from liability for opinions expressed or votes cast in the exercise of their duties;

3) Not to be obligated to perform military service without their consent;

4) Not to be subject to civil process for a period beginning thirty days prior to the regular sessions of Congress or from the date of the decree convoking a special session until fifteen days after either. Pending cases shall remain in suspense during those periods;

5) Not to be deprived of liberty or confined, even during a suspension of civil guarantees, unless convicted by a final verdict or judgment; and

6) The right to obtain two fellowships in the secondary education centers for qualified students, paid for by the government and in accordance with the corresponding regulations.

Article. The deputies and senators shall be compensated for their services by a monthly salary which they shall receive during their term of office and which shall be fixed by a two-thirds vote of the full membership of Congress in joint session in the last period of each legislature, to affect the members of the following legislature. This compensation cannot be renounced, withheld, or attached.

Article 147. Each of the chambers has the following powers, without intervention by the other:

1) To elect its own officers;

2) To appoint and remove its employees;

3) To regulate the order of its meetings and all matters concerning its internal organization;

4) To organize its secretariat and the offices under its authority in accordance with the corresponding regulations;

5) To sanction its expenditures;

6) To arrange its economy and internal policing;

7) To enforce attendance by its members;

8) To invite the other chamber to take part in joint debate;

9) To appoint, in accordance with regulations, committees of inquiry. The national, departmental, or municipal administrative authorities, and the judicial authorities, are obligated to submit to the said committees the information and documents which they request.

Any deputy or senator may ask the Ministers of State for data and reports which he considers necessary for the exercise of his functions;

10) To reprimand or remove, by a two-thirds majority vote, any of its members because of misconduct in the performance of duty, incapacity, or physical or mental disability, duly substantiated. In cases of resignation, it shall decide by a simple majority vote; and

11) To grant retirement and superannuation pensions and gratuities to its employees or to their relatives, in conformity with the law.

Article 148. Congress in separate session has the following powers:

1) To enact and order the publication of the codes;

2) To enact laws relating to the independence, security, tranquility, and decorum of the Republic; the protection of all individual rights and the fostering of public works, social welfare, public health, public education, agriculture, labor, finances and economy, industry, and domestic and foreign trade;

3) To interpret, amend, and repeal existing laws;

4) To establish tribunals and regulate the administration of justice and of contentious-administrative matters;

5) To create and abolish public posts and assign to them the proper emoluments, with the exception of those whose creation or abolition devolves on other bodies according to the law;

6) To examine infractions of the Constitution and do what is necessary in order to make effective the responsibility of those who infringe it;

7) To pass political judgment on the conduct of the Ministers of State, in accordance with the provisions of Section VIII;

8) To enact the electoral law;

9) To impose the necessary taxes to meet budgetary expenditures, provide for their distribution, collection and appropriation, and to repeal, modify, or increase those in existence;

10) To approve each year the estimate of receipts and in the same law to fix the expenditures of the public administration.

Congress cannot approve any new expenditure chargeable to the funds of the Nation without at the same time creating or indicating the sources of revenue necessary to provide for this expenditure;

11) To recognize the national debt and indicate the means for its consolidation and amortization;

12) To establish the weight, standard and value of monies; to fix the rates and denominations thereof; and to provide a system of weights and measures;

13) To authorize the establishment of banks of issue;

14) To approve or reject the treaties, conventions, concordats, and other international agreements signed on behalf of the Republic, and to authorize the executive branch to declare war and conclude peace;

15) To permit or prohibit the entry of foreign troops into the territory of the Republic, and in the former case, to fix the time when they must depart;

16) To refuse or permit the expedition of national forces outside the Republic, in the latter case fixing the time for their return to the country;

17) To effect the demarcation and division of the national territory;

18) To establish the legal rules governing the transfer and lease of fiscal and municipal assets;

19) To change, under extraordinary circumstances on serious grounds of public necessity, the seat of any or all government organs;

20) To regulate river and air navigation;

21) To open and close ports and establish maritime and inland customhouses;

22) To grant amnesties and pardons for political offenses and common offenses related thereto.

In no case may pardons include civil liabilities toward private individuals;

23) To exercise any other powers that are within its competence according to this Constitution.

Article 149. At the initiative of the executive branch, Congress in separate session also has the following powers:

1) To authorize awards, indemnities, pensions, prizes, and honors, without prejudice to the authority that the President of the Republic holds as chief of the armed forces;

2) To authorize, for specific periods of time, concessions for the establishment of new industries or national public services, as well as for the extraction and transformation of raw materials;

3) To issue military ordinances and enact the organic law of the military courts;

4) To enact laws pursuant to which captures on sea and land must be declared good or bad and enact maritime laws applicable in peace and war;

5) To grant permission to the President of the Republic to leave the country;

6) To authorize the executive branch to negotiate loans pledging the national treasury and indicating funds for their amortization.

[edit] Chapter II
The Chamber of Deputies

Article 150. The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of at least sixty deputies elected, with their respective alternates, directly by the people, in departmental election districts, at the ratio of one regular deputy and one alternate for every thirty thousand inhabitants or fraction thereof exceeding fifteen thousand; but in any case each department shall be entitled to have one deputy.

Article 151. The Chamber of Deputies shall be renewed in the aggregate every four years.

Article 152. The following are the requirements to be a deputy:

1) To be a _____ citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights;

2) To have attained twenty-five years of age by the day of the election;

3) To be a native of the department to which the electoral circumscription belongs, or a resident thereof with effective residence for more than three years prior to the date of the election. Residence is not lost by absence in the discharge of elective public office.

Article 153. The Chamber of Deputies shall have exclusive power:

1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to the tax, monetary, and banking systems, to the contracting of loans, and to the general budget of the nation;

2) To initiate the consideration of any bill relating to electoral or municipal legislation;

3) Whenever irregular procedures in the handling of government expenditures are revealed in the annual report of the comptroller general on the execution of the general budget of the nation, to adopt the pertinent measures as provided in this Constitution and the laws, without prejudice to the comptroller general's own powers;

4) To examine accusations presented by its own members or by private individuals against the President of the Republic, deputies, senators, magistrates of the courts of justice, Ministers and Vice Ministers of State, diplomatic agents, the attorney general, and the comptroller general; and if the charge appears well founded, to submit the corresponding impeachment to the Senate.

[edit] Chapter III
The Senate

Article 154. The Senate shall consist of at least thirty regular senators and their respective alternates, elected directly by the people, in a single national election district.

Article 155. The Senate shall be renewed every four years by parts in the manner determined by law. Each Senator shall remain eight years in office.

Article 156. Article 152. The following are the requirements to be a senator:

1) To be a _____ citizen by birth, in the exercise of his rights;

2) To have attained forty years of age by the day of the election.

Article 157. The Senate shall have exclusive power:

1) To initiate the consideration of bills relating to national defense, to the ratification of international treaties, conventions or agreements, to expropriations, and to the limitation of real property ownership;

2) To consent to the appointment of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the attorney general, the comptroller general, and the ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary of the foreign service of the Republic, as well as to military promotions beginning with and including the rank of colonel in the army, or its equivalent in the other branches of the armed forces and in the services;

3) To try impeachments submitted by the Chamber of Deputies against the officials referred to in Article 153 by a hearing of the accused. If the latter does not appear he shall be tried in absentia. It may declare them guilty only by a two-thirds absolute majority vote, and its verdict will have no further effect other than that of depriving the accused of their authority, aside from any legal action that may be brought against them in the lower courts;

4) To authorize public officials or employees to accept posts, honors, or recompense from foreign governments.

5) To grant or deny its consent to the acts of the President of the Republic in cases in which the Constitution or the law so requires.

If the Senate does not pass upon the matter within thirty days after call for urgency by the President of the Republic, its consent shall be taken for granted.

6) To give advice to the President of the Republic in all cases in which he may consult it.

7) To exercise any other powers indicated in this Constitution and the laws.

[edit] Chapter IV
Congress in Joint Session

Article 158. Congress in joint session has the following powers:

1) To elect its own board of officers, which shall consist of a president, a vice president, and two secretaries, with corresponding vice secretaries;

2) To regulate the order of business of its meetings and all matters concerning its internal organization;

3) To declare the President of the Republic elected, in accordance with the electoral law, and to receive his constitutional oath of office;

4) To accept or reject the resignation from his post of the President of the Republic;

5) To declare vacant the Presidency of the Republic in the cases which the Constitution indicates;

6) To take cognizance of a veto by the executive branch;

7) To declare and specify the duration of a state of economic emergency whenever abnormal circumstances of the country so demand.

Such a declaration of emergency shall suspend, if so ordered, any or all guarantees set forth in Article 65.

The laws enacted by the legislative branch on the basis of this declaration or during its recess by the executive branch may not be in force to the detriment of stated constitutional guarantees longer than the time fixed by the corresponding decree;

8) To take cognizance of the decree-laws issued by the executive branch in the event of emergency or public necessity;

9) To legalize the extraordinary or supplementary credits authorized by the President of the Republic in Council of Ministers;

10) To take cognizance of the report presented by the executive branch on measures taken during the suspension of constitutional guarantees;

11) To grant to illustrious _______ans who have rendered eminent services to the Republic, the honors of the National Pantheon, when twenty-five years have elapsed since their death;

12) To establish, by a three-fourths vote, the national coat of arms, the flag of the republic, and the national anthem;

13) To exercise such other functions and powers that this Constitution and the laws may give it.