Article 1. Law of the Civil Service of the Legislative Organ
The specific law that governs the relations of the Legislative Organ with its personnel, must be issued within the thirty days following the installation of such Organ.
Article 2. Lower Level [Menores] Courts
No municipal authority shall perform judicial functions, so that within a time no greater than two years from the effectiveness of this Constitution, the lower level courts must be severed from the municipalities of the country and the Judicial Organ shall appoint the specific authorities, regionalizing and appointing judges where it corresponds. Within this time, the laws and other provisions necessary for the appropriate compliance of this Article must be adopted.
Article 3. Conservation of Nationality
Whoever has obtained [the] Guatemalan nationality, of origin or through naturalization, will retain it with the totality of its rights. The Congress of the Republic shall issue a law concerning citizenship, in the briefest time possible.
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The Government of the Republic, organized in accordance with the Fundamental Statute of the Government [Estatuto Fundamental de Gobierno] and its reforms, will retain its functions until the person elected to the office [cargo] of President of the Republic takes possession [of it].
The Fundamental Statute of Government contained in Decree-Law 24-82 dated 27 April 1982, 36-82 dated 9 June 1982, 87-83 dated 8 August 1983, and the other reforms, will continue in force until the moment of initiation of the effectiveness of this Constitution.
Article 5. General Elections
On 3 November 1985, general elections will be held for the President and Vice-President of the Republic, [for the] deputies to the Congress of the Republic, and for municipal corporations in all the country, in accordance with what is established by the specific Electoral Law issued by the Office of the Head of State [Jefatura de Estado] for the conduct of such general elections.
If it proceeds, a second election will be held for President and Vice-President of the Republic on 8 December 1985, in accordance with the same law.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal will organize such elections [comicios] and will make the definitive determination [calificación] of the results, proclaiming those citizens elected.
Article 6. [The] Congress of the Republic
The National Constituent Assembly will give possession of their responsibilities [cargos] to the deputies declared elected by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on 14 January 1986.
The deputies elected to the Congress of the Republic will hold preparatory sessions in such manner that in the same act of taking possession of their responsibilities, the Directive Board of the Congress of the Republic integrated in the form established by this Constitution may take possession of its [responsibilities].
Article 7. Dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly
Once the mandate of giving possession to the deputies elected to the Congress of the Republic is completed and the Congress is organized, on 14 January 1986, the National Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Guatemala elected on 1 July 1984, will have terminated its functions and by expiration of its mandate on the same day, proceeds to dissolve. Prior to its dissolution, it will examine its accounts and grant them its approval.
Article 8. [The] Presidency of the Republic
The Congress of the Republic, once installed in accordance with the preceding norms, is obligated to give possession of his [or her] office to the person declared elected as [the] President of the Republic by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and it shall do this in a solemn session that will be held at the latest at 16:00 hours on 14 January 1986.
By the same act, the Congress of the Republic will give possession of his [or her] office to the person declared elected by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal as the Vice-President of the Republic.
In the preparatory sessions of the Congress of the Republic, the necessary ceremony shall be planned and shall be organized.
Article 9. [The] Municipalities
The elected municipal corporations will take possession of their offices and will initiate the period for which they were elected, on 15 January 1986.
The Congress of the Republic must issue a new Municipal Code [Código Municipal], the Law of Municipal Service [Ley de Servicio Municipal], the Preliminary Law of Regionalization [Ley Preliminar de Regionalización] and a Municipal Tax Code [Código Tributario Municipal], adjusted to the constitutional precepts, at the latest, in the time of one year from the installation of the Congress.
Article 10. [The] Supreme Court of Justice
The magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the other functionaries whose appointment corresponds to the Congress of the Republic, on this occasion, will be appointed and take possession of their responsibilities in the period contemplated between 15 January 1986 and 14 February 1986
Its period will terminate on the dates established in this Constitution and in the Law of the Civil Service of the Judicial Organ.
Six months after taking possession of their offices, the members of the Supreme Court of Justice, in exercise of their initiative of law, must send to the Congress of the Republic the bill of law of the composition [integración] of the Judicial Organ.
Article 11. [The] Executive Organ
During the first year of effectiveness of this Constitution, the President of the Republic, in the exercise of his [or her] initiative of law, must send to the Congress of the Republic the bill of law of the Executive Organ.
Article 12. [The] Budget
From the entrance into force of the Constitution, the Government of the Republic may submit to the cognizance of the Congress of the Republic the General Budget of [the] Revenues and Expenditures of the State brought into force by the previous government. If it is not modified, it will continue in force during the fiscal year of 1986.
Article 13. Allocation for [Improving] Literacy
One percent of the General Ordinary Budget of [the] Revenues of the State is allocated, to eradicate illiteracy [analfabetismo] among the economically active population, during the first three governments originating from this Constitution, [an] allocation that will be deducted, in these periods, from the percentage established in Article 91 of this Constitution.
Article 14. National Committee for [Improving] Literacy
The approval of the budgets and of [the] programs of literacy, and the control and supervision of its development, will be the charge [cargo] of a National Committee of Literacy [Comité Nacional de Alfabetización] comprised by the public and private sectors, [of which] half plus one of its members shall be from the public sector. A Law of Literacy [Ley de Alfabetización] shall be issued by the Congress of the Republic in the six months following the effectiveness of this Constitution.
Article 15. Integration of Petén
The promotion and [the] economic development of the Department of Petén, for its effective integration into the national economy[,] is declared to be of national urgency. The law shall determine the measures and activities that will lead [tiendan] to such purposes.
Article 16. Decree-Laws
The juridical validity of the decree-laws originating from the Government of the Republic beginning on 23 March 1982, as well as all the administrative and government acts realized in accordance with the law beginning on said date[,] are recognized.
Article 17. Financing to Political Parties
The political parties shall enjoy financing, beginning with the general elections of 3 November 1985, which will be regulated by the Constitutional Electoral Law.
Article 18. Revelation [Divulgación] of the Constitution
In the course of the year following its effectiveness, the Constitution shall be broadly disseminated in the Quiché, Mam, Cakchiquel, and Kekchí languages.
Article 19. Belize [Belice]
The Executive will have the faculty to realize those measures [gestiones] that would tend to resolve the situation of the rights of Guatemala with respect to Belize, in accordance with the national interests. Any definitive agreement must be submitted by the Congress of the Republic to the procedure of popular consultation specified in Article 173 of the Constitution.
The Government of Guatemala will promote social, economic, and cultural relations with the population of Belize.
For the effects of nationality, the nationals of Belize [Beliceños] of origin are subject to the regime which this Constitution established for [those nationals] of origin of the Central American countries.
Article 20. Headings [epígrafes]
The headings that precede the Articles of this Constitution do not have interpretive validity and may not be quoted with respect to the content and scope of [the] constitutional norms.
Article 21. Effectiveness of the Constitution
This Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala will enter into force on 14 January 1986, on the installation of the Congress of the Republic and will not lose its validity and effectiveness regardless of any temporary interruption resulting from situations of force.
This Article and Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, and 20 of the transitory and final provisions of this Constitution are excepted from the date of effectiveness, [and] they will enter into force on 1 June 1985.
Article 22. Abrogation [Derogatoria]
All the Constitutions of the Republic of Guatemala and the constitutional reforms decreed prior to the present, are abrogated, as well as any laws and provisions that may have had equal effects.
Article 23
For adequate implementation [adecuación] by the Congress of the Republic of the constitutional reforms approved on 17 November 1993 it must proceed in the following manner:
When these constitutional reforms are in force the Supreme Electoral Tribunal must convoke elections for the deputies to the Congress of the Republic, which must be realized in a time not more than one hundred and twenty days after being convoked.
The deputies that are elected [as a] result shall take possession of their offices thirty days after the election is effected, [the] date on which the term and functions of the deputies of the Congress of the Republic which was installed on 15 January 1991 terminates.
The Congress of the Republic that is installed in accordance with provisions a) and b) of this Article, shall conclude its functions on 14 January 1996This same day the deputies that are elected in the general elections of 1995 shall take possession [of office].
Article 24
For the adequate implementation by the Supreme Court of Justice and the other tribunals which are referred to in Article 217 of this Constitution, by the Office of the Comptroller General of Accounts and by the Public Ministry of the approved constitutional reforms, it shall proceed in the following manner:
The Congress of the Republic which is installed in accordance with the previous Transitory Article, shall convoke, within the three days following its installation, the Nominating Commissions specified in Articles 215, 217 and 233 of this Constitution, so that in a time of not more than fifteen days it shall proceed to make the corresponding nominations.
The Congress of the Republic which is installed in accordance with the previous Transitory Article must elect the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the other tribunals referred to in Article 217 of this Constitution and the Comptroller General of Accounts within the thirty days following the installation of the new Congress, [a] date on which the elected [persons] must take possession of their offices [cargos] and on which the term and functions of the magistrates and [the] comptroller which they must substitute terminates.
For the effects of the previous provisions, the Congress will meet in extraordinary sessions if it should be necessary.
The President of the Republic must appoint the Procurator General of the Nation within thirty days after the effectiveness of these reforms, [a] date on which he [or she] must take possession [of office] and on which the term and functions of the procurator that he [or she] substituted[,] terminates.
The President of the Republic must appoint the Attorney General of the Republic within the thirty days after the effectiveness of these reforms, [a] date on which he [or she] must take possession [of office].
The Procurator General of the Nation shall continue to perform the responsibilities of Head of the Public Ministry until the Attorney General takes possession [of office].
Article 25
The provisions contained in Articles 23 and 24 of the Sole Chapter of Title VIII of this Constitution are of special character and [they will] prevail over any others of general character.
Article 26
At the latest, within a period of eighteen months from the date of the effectiveness of these reforms, the Executive Organ, in order to modernize and make the public administration more efficient, in exercise of its initiative of law, must send to the Congress of the Republic, an initiative of law that contains the Law of the Executive Organ.
Article 27
With the objective that the elections of the municipal governments be realized on one same date, conjointly with the presidential elections and [the elections] of deputies, in those municipalities where municipal governments took possession [of their responsibilities] in June of 1993 for a period of five years, the next elections shall be for a term that will conclude on 15 January 2000.
For this effect the Supreme Electoral Tribunal must take the pertinent measures.
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