Constitution

Central African Republic 2013 Constitution

Table of Contents

Title V. Of the Relationship Between the National Council of the Transition and the Executive Power

Article 65

The initiative of submitting the Central African Republic’s new Constitution to referendum belongs to the National Council of the Transition.

The preliminary draft of the new Constitution is submitted to the government for its advice and amendments. The new draft incorporating the government’s amendments is then subject to a national workshop to enrich it, and organized in coordination with the National Council of the Transition. The resulting draft is presented to the Constitutional Court for its opinion and amended if applicable by the National Council of the Transition to take into account the Constitutional Court’s opinion.

The final draft of the Constitution adopted by the National Council of the Transition is then submitted to the people by way of referendum.

Article 66

Legislative initiative belongs jointly to the Government of the Transition and to the National Councilors. Draft laws emanating from the Government, and legislative proposals emanating from the National Council of the Transition, are filed with the Bureau of the National Council of the Transition which sends them to be examined by specialized commissions, the composition and assignment of which are set out by the rules of procedure of the National Council of the Transition.

Article 67

Draft laws adopted in the Council of Ministers are filed with the Bureau of the National Council of the Transition by the Government of the Transition to be examined and adopted.

Article 68

Legislative proposals are filed before deliberation and voting with the Government of the Transition for advice.

The Government of the Transition has eight (8) days to make its observations known to the President of the National Council of the Transition.

Article 69

If it comes to light during the legislative procedure that a legislative proposal or an amendment should not be determined by statute or is contrary to this Constitutional Charter of the Transition, the Prime Minister, the President of the National Council of the Transition or one-fifth of National Councilors can raise a plea of irreceivability.

Article 70

The Conference of Presidents, extended to members of the Bureau of the National Council of the Transition and the Government of the Transition, on the initiative of one or the other, will hold periodic working sessions on questions belonging to the supreme interest of the Nation.

Article 71

The National Council of the Transition controls its own agenda. It is set by the Conference of Presidents.

The setting, as a priority, of a draft law or legislative or constitutional proposal, to the National Council of the Transition’s sessions’ agenda, is permitted at the Government’s request.

A member of the Government is in charge, for every draft law or constitutional amendment, of explaining the rationale and of supporting the debate in committee and plenary sessions alike before the National Council of the Transition.

Members of the government of the Transition have access to the National Council of the Transition’s sessions.

They will be heard if they request it or if the National Council of the Transition requests it.

They may be assisted by their collaborators.

Article 72

The Government of the Transition introduces the Transition Roadmap within a maximum delay of eight (8) days after its approval in the Council of Ministers, to the National Council of the Transition who will debate it.

Any observations that the Transition Roadmap may give rise to must be made within eight (8) days following its transmission to the National Council of the Transition, if the latter is in session.

At the end of each semester, the Government of the Transition files a report on the partial implementation of the Transition Roadmap to the National Council of the Transition, who may then debate it.

Article 73

The National Council of the Transition may question the Government of the Transition.

It may ask it oral questions, with or without debate, written questions or current affairs questions to which the government must answer.

It may control the Government of the Transition’s action through hearings in front of a commission and by a committee of inquiry and control.

These means of control may be followed by a debate and recommendations to the Government of the Transition. They will not give rise to a vote.

The rules of procedure determine the conditions of organization and functioning of the committees of inquiry and control as well as their powers.

Article 74

Any question of confidence, motion of confidence or censure is inadmissible during the Transition period.

Article 75

The Head of State of the Transition communicates with the National Council of the Transition through messages that they deliver or have read and that do not give rise to a debate, nor to a vote.