New NS Nation

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Revision as of 06:21, 2 September 2009

Article 1. (1) ____ is and will always be independent. It is constituted as a unitary and indivisible Republic and adopts representative democracy as its form of government.

Article 2. (1) All power emanates from the people, who exercise such power through their representatives or by referendum, in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

(2) No group of people nor individual can be granted the power.

(3) The organization of a referendum shall be established by law.

Article 3. The government of the Republic is exercised by the legislative, executive, and judicial powers, within a system of divisions, balance, and interdependence of power.

Article 4. The symbols of the Fatherland are:

(1) The national flag, consisting of three vertical stripes of equal width, of which the left stripe is blue, the center stripe is white, and the right stripe is red; the center of the flag is defaced with the national coat of arms.

(2) The national coat of arms is a blue roundel, in the center of which is a yellow five-pointed star, and around which are two wreaths.

(3) The national motto of the Republic is "Paz y Progreso."

(4) The national anthem of the Republic is "Himno Nacional de la República de _______."

Article 5. The official langauges of the Republic shall be Spanish and, in areas where they predominate, indigenous languages.

Article 6. The official religion of the Republic is the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion, without prejudice to the religious liberty that remains guaranteed by this Constitution. The official relations of the Republic with the Holy See shall be governed by concordats or other bilateral agreements.

The National Congress shall have power:
a) To enact, amend, and repeal laws.
b) To establish political divisions of the country and municipal organizations.
c) To grant authorization for contracting loans in connection with banking, currency, and exchange matters.
d) To enact the national budget.
e) To approve or reject treaties, conventions, and international agreements.
f) To grant amnesty.
g) To formulate electoral laws.
h) To approve, modify, or refuse decree laws.
i) To establish colleges for marine, artillery, and engineers, and to erect establishments in which are to be taught natural, political, and moral sciences, noble arts, and the languages.
j) To open and improve roads and canals; to establish post offices; and to secure for a limited time to authors, inventors, and artists the exclusive right to their respective works.
k) To contract debts upon the credit of _____, and designate guarantees to cover them.
l) To acknowledge the national debt, and designate means for its consolidation and payment.
m) To regulate commerce with foreign nations.
n) To establish ports and customs houses and designate their locations.
o) To determine and regulate the weight, standard, value, and denomination of the national currency, and adopt a general system of weights and measures.
p) To grant or deny the entrance of foreign troops in _____ territory.
q) To grant or deny naval forces of foreign powers permission to station in _____ ports.
r) To authorize or refuse to authorize the deployment of _____ military forces outside the limits of the national territory.
s) To create and suppress public offices of the Republic and designate, augment, or diminish their emoluments and pensions.
t) To grant premiums and recompenses to corporations or persons who have rendered important service to the Republic, and decree public honors to the posthumous memory of great men.
u) To select a place to serve as a residence of the executive, legislate, and judicial branches of the Republic, and to change such residence if necessary.

The President shall have power:
a) To direct the general policy of the State and represent it.
b) To maintain the independence, honor, integrity, and inviolability of _____.
c) To maintain the peace and security of _____ and repel any attack or foreign aggression.
d) To sanction and promulgate the laws; to execute them and enforce their execution; and to enact, when the National Congress does not do so, the regulations for the best execution of said laws.
e) To issue decrees, regulations, and resolutions pursuant to law.
f) To address the National Congress at any time, and to adjourn each ordinary legislative session.
g) To call the National Congress into special session, or propose an extension of the ordinary session.
h) To suspend sessions of the National Congress when agreement to that effect may not have been reached between the colegislative bodies.
i) To direct foreign policy.
j) To conclude, with the approval of the Chamber of Senators, treaties of peace, alliance, friendship, and armed neutrality with foreign powers.
k) To freely appoint and remove the Ministers of his cabinet.
l) To appoint, with the approval of the Chamber of Senators, the President and Ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice, judges and prosecutors of circuit and district courts, diplomatic ministers and consuls, officers of the armed forces, the Attorney-General, the Ombudsman, the President of the Central Bank, the President of the National Development Bank, the Comptroller General, the Auditer General, the Inspector General, provincial governors, the rector of the National University, the members of the Rural Welfare Institute, the members of the National Economic Council, and all other public officials whose appointment is not delegated to other authorities.
m) To receive and accredit the diplomatic representatives and consular agents of other nations.
n) To conduct economic and financial policy.
o) To dictate extraordinary measures on economic and financial matters when required by the national interest.
p) To formulate the National Development Plan and, with the approval of the National Congress, to direct and implement the plan.
q) To negotiate international loans, with the approval of the National Congress.
r) To grant pardons and commute criminal sentences.
s) To confer military and civilian decorations.
t) To declare war, with the authorization of the National Congress.
u) To declare a state of siege and to abrogate constitutional rights and guarantees in times of internal or external crises, provided that the National Congress is informed, within five days, of the reasons for the state of siege; the rights that are being restricted; and its territorial scope.

The Senators and Deputies, and the members of the Constitutional Conventions as well as those of Municipal Boards and Electoral Boards, will be elected in direct general elections, by means of the following complete list and proportional representation system:

a. The system of representation adopted consists of assigning two thirds of all the positions to the party that obtains the greatest number of valid votes. The proportion for the remaining posts will be determined in the following manner: the total number of valid votes cast in favor of the minority parties will be added together and divided by the number of positions to be filled. The result will be the electoral quotient for the minority, and this quotient will serve as the divisor for the number of valid votes cast in favor of each of the minority parties.

b. If, after the respective posts have been assigned, one or more remain to be filled, the first shall be adjudicated to the minority party whose surplus votes are closest to the quotient that received the larges number of valid votes. The system thus established shall apply also to the alternates.

Article 79. In order to defend this Constitution and the authorities created inconformity therewith, the state of siege is instituted to be imposed only in cases of international conflict or war, foreign invasion, domestic disturbance, or serious threat of any one of these events. A state of siege may be complete or partial, depending on whether it affects the entire territory of the republic or only a part thereof, and during the time it is in effect persons suspected of participating in any of those events may be arrested, or they may be transferred from one point in the republic to another, and public meetings and demonstrations may be prohibited. Those arrested by virtue of a state of siege shall be held in healthful and clean premises not intended for common criminals, and transfers shall always be made to localities that are populated and healthful. The declaration of state of siege shall be for a limited time and shall in all cases serve the purpose for which it was instituted. The fact that a state of siege is in effect shall not interrupt the functioning of the powers of the state or affect the exercise of their prerogatives. The imposition of a state of siege shall be regulated by law.

The article transcribed above is complemented by Article 181 of the Constitution, which states that following:

Article 181. In the cases stipulated in Article 79 of this Constitution the executive power may decree a state of siege, in which case it must set forth the reasons therefore, the guarantees that are being suspended or restricted, and whether it is in force for the entire national territory of a part thereof, and may adopt the measures authorized in the aforementioned article. The executive power shall inform the Congress of the corresponding decree within five days following its publication.