TITLE IX. OF THE ORDERING OF THE TERRITORY AND OF THE LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER I. OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY
Article 193. Principles of territorial organization
The Dominican Republic is a unitary State of which territorial organization has as its purpose the favoring of its integral and balanced development and that of its inhabitants, by being compatible with their needs and with the preservation of its natural resources, and of its national identity and of its cultural values. The territorial organization will be made hard in accordance with the principles of unity, identity, and political, administrative, social and economic rationality.
Article 194. Plan of territorial ordering
The formulation and execution, through the law, of a plan of territorial ordering that assures the efficient and sustainable use of the natural resources of the Nation, in accordance with the need of adaptation to climate change, is a priority of the State.
Article 195. Territorial delimitation
The names and the limits of the regions, as well as of the provinces and of the municipalities, in which they are divided, will be determined through an organic law.
CHAPTER II. OF THE LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
SECTION I. OF THE REGIONS AND OF THE PROVINCES
Article 196. The region
The region is the basic unit for the articulation and formulation of the public policies in the national territory. The law will define all of what is relative to its competences, composition, organization and functioning and will determine the number of these.
Paragraph
Without prejudice to the principle of solidarity, the State will procure a reasonable balance of the public investment in the distinct geographic demarcations in a manner so as to be proportional with their contributions to the national economy.
Article 197. The province
The province is the intermediate political demarcation in the territory. It is divided into municipalities, municipal districts, sections and places. The law will define all of what is relative to its composition, organization and functioning and will determine the number of these.
Article 198. The Civil Governor
The Executive Power will appoint in each province a civil governor, who will be its representative in that demarcation. In order to be a civil governor it is required to be a Dominican [masculine] or Dominican [feminine], greater than twenty-five years of age and be in full exercise of the civil and political rights. Their attributions and duties will be determined by the law.
SECTION II. OF THE REGIME OF THE MUNICIPALITIES
Article 199. Local administration
The National District, the municipalities and the municipal districts constitute the base of the local political administrative system. They are juridical persons of Public Law, responsible for their actions, they enjoy their own patrimony, with budgetary autonomy, with normative and administrative powers and of use of territory, established in an express manner by the law and subjected to the power of supervision of the State and to the social control of the citizenry, in the terms established by this Constitution and the laws.
Article 200. Municipal taxes
The town councils can establish municipal taxes within the scope of their demarcation that the law establishes in an express manner, as long as they do not interfere with the national taxes, with intermunicipal commerce or of exporting or with the Constitution and the laws. It corresponds to the competent tribunals to take cognizance of the disputes that arise in this matter.
Article 201. Local governments
The government of the National District and of the municipalities will be, each one, the responsibility of the town council, constituted by two organs that are complementary between them, the Council of Aldermen and the Office of the Mayor. The Council of Aldermen is an exclusive normative, regulatory and supervisory organ integrated by Aldermen [masculine] and Aldermen [feminine]. These will have substitutes. The Office of the Mayor is the executive organ headed by a Mayor [masculine] or Mayor [feminine], whose substitute will be denominated Vice-Mayor [masculine] or Vice-Mayor [feminine].
Paragraph I
The government of the municipal districts will be the responsibility of a District Board, integrated by a director [masculine] or a director [feminine] which will act as an executive organ, and a Board of Members with normative, regulatory and supervisory functions. The director [masculine] or the director [feminine] will have a substitute.
Paragraph II
The parties or political, regional, provincial or municipal groups will make the presentation of candidatures for the municipal elections and for the municipal districts for Mayor [masculine] or Mayor [feminine], for Aldermen [masculine] and Aldermen [feminine], for director [masculine] or director [feminine] and their substitutes, as well as the members, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws that govern the matter. The number of Aldermen and their substitutes will be determined by the law, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, without there being in any case less than five for the National District and the municipalities, and never less than three for the municipal districts. They will be elected every four years by the people of their jurisdiction in the form the law establishes.
Paragraph III
The naturalized persons with more than five years of residence in one jurisdiction can perform such offices, within the conditions that the law prescribes.
Article 202. Local representatives
The mayors [masculine] or mayors [feminine] of the National District, of the municipalities, as well as the [feminine and masculine] directors of the municipal districts are the legal representatives of the town councils and of the municipal boards. Their attributions and faculties will be determined by the law.
SECTION III. DIRECT MECHANISMS OF LOCAL PARTICIPATION
Article 203. Referendum, plebiscites, and the municipal normative initiative
The Organic Law of the Local Administration will establish the scope, requirements and conditions for the exercise of the referendum, the plebiscite and the municipal normative initiative with the goal of strengthening the development of democracy and the local administration.
CHAPTER III. OF THE DECENTRALIZED ADMINISTRATION
Article 204. Transfer of competences to the municipalities
The State will favor the transfer of competences and resources towards the local governments, in accordance with this Constitution and the law. The implementation of these transfers will give rise to policies of institutional development, and of training and professionalism of the human resources.
Article 205. Municipal budgetary execution
The town councils of the National District, of the municipalities and the boards of the municipal districts will be obligated, in the formulation as well as in the execution of their budgets, to formulate, to approve and to maintain the appropriations and the distributions allocated to each class of attentions and services, in accordance with the law.
Article 206. Participative budgets
The investment of the municipal resources will be made hard through the progressive development of participative budgets that favor integration and citizen co-responsibility in the definition, execution and control of the policies of local development.
Article 207. Economic obligation of the municipalities
The economic obligations contracted by the municipalities, including those that have the endorsement of the State, are of their responsibility, in accordance with the limits and conditions established by the law.
