Title V · The Assembly And Popular Decision · Public Register of the Republic of Fluid

119

The Assembly of the Republic

A single Assembly of two hundred members makes the laws and carries them out.

1.The Assembly of the Republic is the sole legislative organ of the Republic and consists of one chamber.
2.The Assembly comprises two hundred members elected by the residents of the Republic.
3.The Assembly legislates, executes through the committees constituted under Title VI, appoints and dismisses the holders of the offices this Constitution assigns to it, ratifies treaties under Title XI, and declares and terminates states of emergency under Title X.
4.The Assembly does not itself adopt the economic plan or allocate resources, which belong to the organs of Title IV. The National Planning Congress answers to the Assembly under Article 143.

120

The electoral system

Members are elected by open list in the sub-regions, with seats shared out nationally in proportion.

1.Members are elected by universal, equal, free, secret and direct suffrage under Article 60, by open list, in the sub-regional districts established under Article 121.
2.Proportionality is computed at the level of the Republic. The seats of the Assembly are apportioned among the lists in proportion to the votes each has obtained throughout the territory, by the method of odd divisors fixed by organic law.
3.The seats obtained by a list are assigned to its district lists in the order of the votes each district list has obtained, so that the composition of the Assembly reflects the national result and the members are drawn from the districts that returned them.
4.No legal threshold of representation applies. A list obtaining votes sufficient for one seat under paragraph 2 receives it.
5.Each voter casts one vote for a district list and may express preference for candidates within it. Candidates within a list are elected in the order of the preferences expressed, and any order fixed by the list itself yields to that expressed by the voters.
6.Each list presents candidates so that no sex or gender exceeds sixty per cent of its candidates and of its candidates in electable positions.
7.In no case does the validity of an election depend upon the level of participation.

121

Districts and apportionment

Sub-regions are the districts, each returning at least five members, drawn by an independent commission.

1.The electoral districts are the sub-regions of the two regions, established by organic law.
2.Seats are apportioned among the districts in proportion to their resident population, recorded by the register of residence and revised every ten years and after every change of boundary.
3.No district returns fewer than five members. Districts whose population falls below that entitlement are combined until the entitlement is reached.
4.In no case does the population of a district depart from the average population per seat by more than ten per cent, and a departure of five per cent or more obliges revision at the following apportionment.
5.Boundaries are drawn by an independent commission constituted under Title IX, upon a public procedure with hearings in the affected localities, by criteria of contiguity, of respect for communal boundaries and for settled communities of interest, and with no regard to the distribution of past votes or to the residence of any candidate.
6.The proposal of the commission takes effect unless the Assembly rejects it entire by a majority of three fifths, whereupon the commission submits a fresh proposal.

122

Candidacy

Any resident of sixteen may stand, campaigns are publicly resourced, and donations are prohibited.

1.Every resident who has attained the age of sixteen years may stand for election.
2.Lists are presented by parties, by cooperative federations, by unions, by communal councils, by associations, and by groups of residents furnishing the signatures fixed by organic law, which in no case exceed two hundred per district.
3.Individual candidacy outside any list is admitted, and organic law provides for the treatment of such candidacies in the computation of Article 120.
4.Refusal of a candidacy is permitted only for want of a condition fixed by this Constitution or by organic law, is stated in writing with reasons, and is appealable to the Constitutional Court within seven days.
5.The resources of a campaign are furnished by the plan on a scale that is public, equal among lists satisfying the conditions of paragraph 2, and independent of past results. Contributions of goods, services, resources or the residual unit of account to a candidacy or a party are prohibited, and Article 114 governs.

123

Term and date of election

The Assembly serves five years, and can never extend its own term.

1.The Assembly is elected for five years.
2.The ordinary election is held on 10 June of the fifth year, and the Assembly elected convenes within fifteen days of the proclamation of the result.
3.The term ends upon the convening of the succeeding Assembly, and in no case is it extended by decision of the Assembly itself.
4.Where a state of emergency under Title X or a state of armed attack makes the holding of an election impossible in part of the territory, the Assembly may postpone the election, by a majority of two thirds, upon the prior finding of the Constitutional Court that the impossibility exists, for a period of six months at the most, renewable once by the same procedure and upon a fresh finding. Beyond twelve months the election is held in the districts where it is possible, and the seats of the remaining districts stay vacant until it can be held there.
5.Postponement under paragraph 4 suspends the mandate of no member, and suspends no right of Title III, no procedure of Chapter 4 of this Title and no review under Article 137.

124

The mandate

Members vote by their own judgement, and keep their seat if they leave their list.

1.Members represent the whole people and exercise their mandate according to their own judgement.
2.Any instruction binding a member to vote in a given manner is void, and in no case may a party, a list or an association deprive a member of their seat.
3.A member who leaves or is expelled from the list on which they were elected retains the seat.
4.Members hold their seat for no more than three consecutive terms.

125

Incompatibilities

A seat cannot be held together with judicial, planning, oversight or enterprise office.

1.The seat of a member is incompatible with delegation to the National Planning Congress, with judicial office, with the offices of Title IX, with membership of the Ecological Budget Authority, with command in the forces, and with a management organ of an enterprise, a federation or a public establishment. Membership of an executive committee is compatible with the seat and is reserved to members of the Assembly.
2.A member elected to an incompatible office chooses between them within fifteen days, and silence is taken as resignation of the seat.
3.Members declare publicly, on taking their seat and annually, their contributions under Article 70, the associations to which they belong, and every interest capable of affecting the exercise of the mandate.
4.In no case may a member act for consideration in the interest of any person before a public organ, and breach of this paragraph is an offence and grounds for the loss of the seat.

126

Provision and conditions of members

Members get the same provision as anyone else, plus what the job actually requires.

1.Members receive the provision furnished to every resident under Articles 62 and 107, together with the accommodation, transport, assistance and materials the exercise of the mandate requires, furnished in kind and accounted publicly.
2.In no respect is the provision of a member distinguishable from that of any other resident by reason of the office.
3.Members remain subject to the working time of Article 72 so far as the sittings of the Assembly permit, and the mandate is contribution under Article 70(2).
4.Members retain the place of contribution they held before election, or receive one conforming with Article 70(6) upon the end of the mandate, and Article 104(4) applies to them.

127

Immunity and responsibility

Members can never be prosecuted for a vote cast or an opinion expressed in office.

1.In no case may a member be prosecuted, detained or held liable at any time, including after the end of the mandate, for an opinion expressed or a vote cast in the exercise of the office. This immunity admits no exception.
2.Prosecution of a member for any other act proceeds under the ordinary law. Detention before judgment requires the authorisation of the Assembly, which is refused only upon a finding that the prosecution is directed at the exercise of the mandate, and which is required in no case for an offence committed in flagrancy or for an offence of corruption.
3.The Assembly states the reasons for a refusal under paragraph 2, and its decision is reviewable by the Constitutional Court at the instance of the prosecuting authority.

128

Recall of a member

Voters in a district may recall the member they elected.

1.The residents of a district may recall a member they have elected.
2.A petition for recall is opened upon the signatures of five per cent of the residents registered in the district, collected within ninety days, and no petition is opened in the first year of a term or in the last six months of it.
3.The recall is decided by vote in the district. The member is removed where a majority of the votes cast is in favour and where those votes exceed one quarter of the residents registered in the district.
4.In no case does participation in the vote condition its validity beyond the requirement of paragraph 3.
5.A seat vacated by recall passes to the next candidate of the same district list in the order of Article 120(5), and where the list is exhausted, a by-election is held in the district.
6.No member is recalled more than once in a term, and no ground of recall need be stated.

129

Vacancy and dissolution

The Assembly may dissolve itself, but never during an emergency or an attack.

1.A seat vacated by death, resignation, loss of seat or recall is filled under Article 128(5).
2.The Assembly may dissolve itself by a majority of two thirds of its members.
3.An election is held within sixty days of a dissolution, and the Assembly elected serves a full term of five years, whereupon the calendar of Article 123(2) resumes at the fifth year following.
4.In no case may the Assembly be dissolved during a state of emergency, during a state of armed attack, or within the six months preceding the ordinary election.
5.A dissolved Assembly continues to sit for the purposes of Article 130(4), of the control of a state of emergency, and of matters admitting of no delay, until the succeeding Assembly convenes.

130

Sittings, publicity and record

Sittings are public, and the record with every named vote is published within a day.

1.The Assembly sits in permanent session and fixes its own agenda, subject to the rights of initiative conferred by this Constitution.
2.Sittings are public. The Assembly may sit in closed session by a majority of two thirds, on grounds of the protection of life or of the security of the Republic alone, and the record of a closed sitting is published upon the expiry of the period fixed at the time of the decision, which in no case exceeds five years.
3.Records of sittings, of committee proceedings, of votes by name, of amendments and of the texts before the Assembly are published within twenty-four hours in open and machine-readable form.
4.The Assembly adopts its own rules of procedure, which conform to this Constitution and are reviewable under Article 137.
5.Sittings are accessible to persons with disabilities, are interpreted into the languages of record, and are transmitted publicly.

131

Quorum and majorities

Ordinary laws pass by a majority of votes cast, and organic laws need three fifths.

1.The Assembly deliberates in the presence of one half of its members and decides by a majority of the votes cast, except where this Constitution requires otherwise.
2.Organic laws are adopted by a majority of three fifths of the members.
3.Amendment of the Constitution follows Title XII.
4.Voting is by name and is recorded and published. Secret voting is admitted only for the election of persons, and Article 137 governs no such election.
5.Voting by proxy, by delegation and by any means concealing the identity of the voting member is prohibited.

132

Committees and inquiry

Committees may summon anyone, and a quarter of the members may open an inquiry.

1.The Assembly constitutes standing committees, composed in proportion to the strength of the lists, whose chairs are distributed among them.
2.A committee may require the attendance of any member of an executive committee, any officer of the administration, any officer of a planning body, any officer of a federation or public establishment, and any person holding a delegated public function, and may require the production of documents.
3.One quarter of the members may constitute a committee of inquiry, whose composition reflects the strength of the lists and whose chair belongs to the members who requested it.
4.A committee of inquiry may summon witnesses, take evidence on oath, and require documents, and its report is published together with the dissenting opinions of its members.
5.Refusal to attend, to testify or to produce a document is an offence, and Article 61(3) protects any person who furnishes information to a committee.
6.Committees hold no power to determine individual liability, which belongs to the courts.

133

Initiative

Bills may come from members, committees, regions, communes, planners, producers or residents.

1.A bill may be introduced by: any member of the Assembly; an executive committee; a regional council; twenty communal councils acting jointly; the National Planning Congress in the matters of Title IV; the Ecological Budget Authority in the matters of Title II; the branch federations, unions, user assemblies and communal economic councils under Article 155; and the residents by popular initiative under Article 139.
2.Every bill is published on introduction, together with its author, its purpose and its text.
3.In no case may the exercise of an initiative be conditioned upon the approval of any organ.

134

Assessment and consultation

Every bill carries a published assessment of its effect on rights, ecology and resources.

1.Every bill is accompanied by an assessment, published with it, stating its effect on the rights of Title III, its effect on the ecological budgets of Title II, the resources its execution requires in physical units, and the persons and territories it affects.
2.A bill whose assessment is absent or manifestly incomplete proceeds to no vote.
3.Bills are open to public comment for sixty days between the first and second readings, and the committee publishes the comments received together with its answer to each substantiated objection.
4.The communes and regions affected by a bill are consulted, and a bill affecting the competences of Title VII proceeds only after their opinions have been published.
5.The Assembly may abridge the periods of this Article by a majority of two thirds where the matter admits of no delay, stating the grounds, and in no case may it abridge them for an organic law or for a bill restricting a right of Title III.

135

Procedure

Bills get three readings, with amendments and the final text published in advance.

1.A bill receives three readings: a reading of principle, a reading in committee upon its articles, and a final reading.
2.Amendments are published before the sitting at which they are considered, and an amendment whose effect the assessment of Article 134(1) has not covered is remitted to the committee.
3.The final text is published for fifteen days before the final vote.
4.A bill rejected is reintroduced within the same session only upon the signature of one quarter of the members.

136

Organic laws and reserved matters

Organic laws are always checked by the Constitutional Chamber before they take effect.

1.The matters this Constitution reserves to organic law are regulated by no other instrument, and in no case may an organic law be amended by an ordinary law or by an act of an executive committee.
2.Organic laws are submitted to the Constitutional Chamber before promulgation in every case, under Article 137(3).
3.In no case may the Assembly delegate to an executive committee the power to legislate in a matter reserved to organic law, in a matter touching the rights of Title III, in criminal law, in electoral law, or in the matters of Titles II and IV.

137

Preventive constitutional review

Texts can be reviewed for constitutionality before promulgation, which suspends them meanwhile.

1.The Constitutional Chamber is the formation of the Constitutional Court constituted under Title VIII for the review of texts before promulgation.
2.The Chamber examines the conformity of a text with this Constitution, with the rights guaranteed in Title III, and with the ecological budgets binding under Article 26.
3.Referral to the Chamber is obligatory for organic laws, for the rules of procedure of the Assembly, and for any text restricting a right of Title III.
4.Referral is otherwise made, within fifteen days of the final vote and before promulgation, by: one tenth of the members of the Assembly; the Coordinating Bureau; a regional council; ten communal councils acting jointly; the National Planning Congress; the Ecological Budget Authority; the offices of Title IX within their competence; and by the residents upon the signatures fixed by organic law.
5.Referral suspends promulgation. The Chamber decides within thirty days, and within eight days where the Coordinating Bureau certifies urgency and the Chamber accepts the certification.
6.A provision declared contrary to this Constitution is not promulgated. Where it is separable, the remainder is promulgated, and where it is inseparable, the text returns to the Assembly.
7.Decisions of the Chamber state reasons, publish dissenting opinions, and bind every organ.
8.Review under this Article excludes no subsequent challenge to a promulgated law before the Constitutional Court by any person under Article 43, except upon a ground the Chamber has already examined and decided.

138

Promulgation, publication and entry into force

Adopted texts are promulgated within fifteen days and published free in open formats.

1.A text adopted is promulgated within fifteen days by the Presiding Officer of the Assembly, whose function in this respect is declaratory and who holds no power to refuse.
2.Failure to promulgate within the period causes the text to take effect by operation of law, and the office of publication records it.
3.A text takes effect upon publication in the public register, or upon the later date it appoints, and Article 14(2) governs.
4.Texts are published in open and machine-readable form, in consolidated versions incorporating every amendment, in the languages of record, and without charge.

139

Popular initiative

Fifty thousand residents can introduce a bill, and force a referendum if it is rejected.

1.Residents may introduce a bill in the Assembly upon the signatures of fifty thousand residents, or of two per cent of the residents registered, whichever is the lesser.
2.Signatures may be given in writing and by the public information system, are verifiable and revocable, and are collected within twelve months.
3.The Assembly considers an initiative within one hundred and twenty days of its deposit, hears its promoters in committee and in plenary sitting, and votes upon it.
4.Where the Assembly rejects an initiative, adopts it in a form its promoters declare substantially altered, or fails to vote within the period, the initiative is submitted to referendum at the request of its promoters.
5.The Assembly may submit a counter-proposal to the same referendum, and the voters decide between the two texts and the existing law.
6.In no case may an initiative propose the reduction of a right of Title III, a measure contrary to the ecological budgets, a measure directed against a person or a determinate group, or a matter this Constitution reserves to Title IV, and the Constitutional Chamber verifies admissibility before the collection of signatures begins.

140

Referendum

Referendums decide bindingly by a majority of votes cast, with no turnout threshold.

1.A referendum is held upon: an initiative under Article 139(4); the request of one third of the members of the Assembly; the request of one quarter of the communal councils; the request of one hundred thousand residents against a law within ninety days of its publication, which suspends its entry into force; a resolution of the Assembly; and in the cases this Constitution otherwise provides.
2.The question is put in terms that are clear, single and answerable, and the Constitutional Chamber verifies its formulation before the vote.
3.The result is determined by a majority of the votes cast, and in no case does the level of participation condition the validity of a referendum.
4.Public resources are furnished equally to the organised proponents and opponents of the question, and the organs of the Republic furnish an impartial statement of the effects of each outcome, published thirty days before the vote.
5.A referendum decides bindingly. A law approved by referendum is amended within four years only by a further referendum, and a law rejected by referendum is reintroduced within four years only by referendum.
6.Article 139(6) governs the admissible subject matter of every referendum.

141

Local decision

Localities decide in person where they can, and by elected council where they cannot.

1.Decision at the level of the locality belongs to the assembly of its residents, meeting in person, wherever the size of the population makes this practicable.
2.Where the population exceeds the figure fixed by organic law, or where the geography of the commune makes assembly impracticable, decision belongs to an elected communal council, which convenes assemblies of residents in its neighbourhoods and remains bound by the initiative and referendum of its residents.
3.Every commune, whether governed by assembly or by council, admits initiative by its residents, referendum upon its acts, and recall of the members of its council.
4.In no case does a threshold of participation condition the validity of a local decision.
5.Title VII establishes the competences of the communes and of the regions, their finance in resources, and the relation between them.

142

Deliberative bodies drawn by lot

Bodies drawn by lot may be convened to examine questions, and must be answered in writing.

1.The Assembly, a region and a commune may convene a deliberative body whose members are drawn by lot from the residents, composed so as to reflect the population in age, gender, territory, occupation and condition.
2.Participation is voluntary, is contribution under Article 70(2), and carries provision for transport, care, accommodation and the release of the participant from other tasks.
3.Such a body hears evidence from persons of differing view, deliberates in conditions of publicity fixed by organic law, and adopts a report with the dissenting opinions of its members.
4.The organ that convened the body answers the report within ninety days, in writing, publicly, and article by article.
5.Deliberative bodies hold no power of decision, and in no case may their convening displace, postpone or condition the exercise of the initiative and referendum of Articles 139 and 140.

143

Accountability of the planning organs

The Planning Congress answers to those who elect it and to the Assembly, and it can be sued.

1.The Assembly makes the laws and carries them out. The economic plan is made by the planning bodies established in Title IV. In no case is the National Planning Congress an independent organ.
2.The Congress answers to the regional economic councils, the branch federations, the user assemblies and the ecological interest that constitute it, each recalling the delegates it has designated under Article 96(3), and to the Assembly under this Article.
3.The Assembly receives the reports of the Congress, questions its delegates, requires documents, examines its account of each planning period, constitutes committees of inquiry under Article 132, and may direct the Congress to reconsider a decision, stating its reasons publicly.
4.A direction under paragraph 3 conforms to this Constitution, to the ecological budgets and to the priority of Article 91(2). In no case may the Assembly direct the Congress to breach a budget, to depart from the order of Article 91(2), to prefer a person, an enterprise, a group or a territory, or to set aside the rounds of negotiation of Article 97(1)(c).
5.In no case may the Assembly adopt the plan itself, amend it by legislation, or recall a delegate designated by another body.
6.In no case may the Congress adopt a text in the matters of Title III, of criminal law, of judicial organisation, of the electoral system, or of the competences of Title VII.
7.A law whose execution requires resources is transmitted to the Congress upon promulgation, and the Congress introduces it into the planning cycle of Article 97 at the following stage of negotiation.
8.Where the Congress finds that the resources a law requires cannot be furnished within the ecological budgets or without displacing a purpose ranked higher under Article 91(2), it publishes that finding with its reasons and the variants examined, and transmits it to the Assembly within sixty days. The Assembly may then amend the law, postpone its entry into force, or confirm it by a majority of three fifths, whereupon the Congress executes it and adjusts the plan under Article 99, except where execution would breach an ecological budget, in which case the law is void to the extent of the breach under Article 26(2).
9.
The plan, and every decision of a planning body, is open to challenge before the Constitutional Court by any resident, cooperative, union, workplace assembly, user or neighbourhood assembly, branch federation, commune, sub-region or region, upon either of the following grounds:
1. a)that the plan or the decision fails to satisfy the minimum core of Article 41, departs from the order of priority of Article 91(2), breaches an ecological budget, or leaves a registered essential need unmet without stating reasons;
2. b)that the participation this Constitution requires has not taken place, comprising the rounds of Article 97(1)(c), the answers to objections required by Article 97(2), the publication required by Article 90(4) and Article 97(4), the accessibility of registration under Article 63(1), the convening of the assemblies of Articles 92 and 93, and the participation floors fixed by organic law.
10.Upon a ground under paragraph 9 the Court may annul the decision in whole or in part, order the stage of the cycle to be conducted afresh within a fixed period, order the extension of registration and of the periods of objection, and order the publication withheld. Pending compliance, essential provision continues on the quantities of the preceding period under Article 98(5).
11.A conflict of competence between the Assembly and the planning bodies is decided by the Constitutional Court at the instance of either, and the decision states the boundary in terms applicable to similar cases.

144

Control of execution

The Assembly questions and controls the executive committees.

1.Every member may address written and oral questions to an executive committee, which answers within the period fixed by the rules of procedure.
2.The Assembly may interpellate an executive committee upon its conduct of any matter, and the interpellation concludes with a resolution.
3.The constitution, the recall and the responsibility of the executive committees are governed by Title VI.
4.The Assembly examines the annual accounts of the administration upon the report of the Audit Office of Title IX, and the report is published with the answer of the Coordinating Bureau.

The Assembly And Popular Decision

Chapter 1 · Composition and Election