Title IX. On the Ordering of the Territory and the Local Administration
Chapter I. On the Organization of the Territory
Article 193. Principles of territorial organization
The Dominican Republic is a unitary State whose territorial organization has as its ends favoring its integral and equilibrated development and that of its inhabitants, compatible with its needs and with the preservation of its natural resources, of its national identity, and its cultural values. The territorial organization shall be made in accordance with the principles of unity, identity, political, administrative, social and economic rationality.
Article 194. Plan of territorial ordering
The formulation and execution, through law, of a plan of territorial ordering that ensures the efficient and sustainable use of the natural resources of the Nation, in accordance with the necessity of adaptation to climate change, is a priority of the State,
Article 195. Territorial delimitation
Through the organic law the name and limits of the regions shall be determined, as well as the provinces and municipalities in which it is divided.
Chapter II. On Local Administration
Section I. On the Regions and 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 shall define all that is related to their responsibilities, composition, organization and functioning and shall determine the number of these.
Paragraph
Without prejudice to the principle of solidarity, the State shall procure the reasonable equilibrium of the public investment in the different geographical demarcations in a manner that is proportional to the support of these to the national economy.
Article 197. The province
The province is the intermediary political demarcation in the territory. It is divided in municipalities, municipal districts, sections and regions. The law shall define all that related to its composition, organization and functioning and shall determine the number of them.
Article 198. Civil Governor
The Executive Power shall appoint in each province a civil governor, who shall be his representative in this demarcation. In order to be civil governor one must be a male or female Dominican, older than twenty-five years of age, and be in full exercise of the civil and political rights. His powers and duties shall be determined by the law.
Section II. On the Regime of the Municipalities
Article 199. Local administration
The National District, the municipalities and municipal districts constitute the base of the local political administrative system. They are juridical persons of Public Right, responsible for their actions, enjoy their own patrimony, budgetary autonomy, with normative and administrative power and the power of the use of their land, fixed in express manner by the law and subject 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 may establish taxes in the area of their demarcation that in an express manner the law establishes, provided that the same never interfere with the national taxes, with the inter-municipal commerce or exportation or with the Constitution or the laws. It is the responsibility of the appropriate courts to come to know the disputes that arise on this topic.
Article 201. Local governments
The government of the National District and that of the municipalities shall each be in charge of the town council, constituted by two organs complementary to each other, the Council of Aldermen and the Mayor’s Office. The Council of Aldermen is an exclusively normative, regulatory, and supervisory organ integrated by male and female aldermen. They shall have substitutes. The Mayor’s Office is the executive organ headed by a male or female mayor, whose substitute shall be called the male or female vice mayor.
Paragraph I
The government of the municipal districts shall be in charge of a District Board, integrated by a male or female director who shall act as executive organ and a Board of Chairpersons with normative, regulatory, and supervisory functions. The male or female director shall have a substitute.
Paragraph II
The political regional, provincial or municipal parties or groups shall make the presentation of candidates to the municipal and municipal district elections for male or female mayor, male or female aldermen, male or female directors and their substitutes, as well as the chairpersons, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws that rule the subject. The number of aldermen and their substitutes shall be determined by the law, in proportion to the number or inhabitants, in no case may they be less than five for the National District and the municipalities and never less than three for the municipal districts. They shall be elected every four years by the people of their jurisdiction in the form established by law.
Paragraph III
Naturalized persons with more than five years of residency in a jurisdiction may occupy said offices, in the conditions prescribed by law.
Article 202. Local representatives
The male or female mayors of the National District, of the municipalities, as well as the male and female directors of the municipal districts are the legal representatives of the town councils and the municipal boards. Their powers and abilities shall be determined by law.
Section III. Direct Mechanisms of Local Participation
Article 203. Referendum, plebiscites and normative municipal initiative
The Organic Law of Local Administration shall establish the spheres, requirements and conditions for the exercise of the referendum, plebiscite, and normative municipal initiative with the purpose of strengthening the development of democracy and local administration.
Chapter III. On Decentralized Administration
Article 204. Transfer of responsibilities to the municipalities
The State shall promote the transfer of responsibilities and resources towards the local governments, in accordance with this Constitution and the law. The implementation of these transfers shall bring with it policies of institutional development, training and professionalization of human resources.
Article 205. Municipal budgetary execution
The town councils of the National District, of the municipalities and the boards of municipal districts shall be obligated, as much in the formulation as in the execution of the budgets to formulate, approve, and maintain the appropriations and the expenditures destined for each class of attention and service, in accordance with the law.
Article 206. Participative budgets
The investment of municipal resources shall be made through the progressive development of participative budgets that promote 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 guarantee of the State are their responsibility, in accordance with the limits and conditions that the law establishes.
