TITLE V. THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Article 59
The Parliament shall comprise one single house called the National Assembly.
Article 60
The members of the National Assembly carry the title of Deputy.
Article 61
The Deputies shall be elected for five years by universal suffrage. An organic law shall determine the conditions of this election.
Article 62
The Deputies shall benefit from parliamentary immunity.
No member of the National Assembly may be prosecuted, sought, arrested, detained, or tried because of his opinions or votes expressed by him in the exercise of his functions.
No member of the National Assembly may, during its sessions, be prosecuted or arrested for criminal or minor offenses without the authorization of the National Assembly, except in the case of flagrant offense.
No member of the National Assembly may, out of session, be arrested without the authorization of the Office of the National Assembly, except in the case of flagrant offense, of authorized prosecutions or of definitive conviction.
The detention or the prosecution of a member of the National Assembly shall be suspended if the National Assembly so requires.
Article 63
An organic law shall determine the number of members of the National Assembly, their indemnification, the conditions of eligibility, the areas of ineligibility and of incompatibility.
The organic law shall also determine the conditions in which people called to assure the replacement of Deputies shall be elected, in case of vacancy of a seat, until the renewal of the National Assembly.
Article 64
All binding instructions (upon members of Parliament) shall be null and void.
The right to vote of members of the National Assembly shall be personal.
The organic law may authorize, under exceptional circumstances, the delegation of a vote. In this case, no member may be delegated more than one vote.
Article 65
The National Assembly shall convene by right in two ordinary sessions per year.
The first session shall begin the first Monday in October.
It may not exceed 75 days.
The second session shall begin the first Monday in April and may not exceed a duration of ninety days.
Article 66
The National Assembly shall convene in extraordinary session upon the demand of the Prime Minister or of the majority of its members to consider a specific agenda.
When the extraordinary session is held at the request of the members of the National Assembly, the closure decree shall take effect as soon as the National Assembly has exhausted the agenda for which it was called and at the latest fifteen days from the date of its convening.
The Prime minister may demand a new session before the expiration of the month following the closure decree and upon a specific agenda.
Article 67
Apart from the cases in which the National Assembly meets by right, extraordinary sessions shall be opened and closed by decree of the. President of the Republic.
Article 68
The National Assembly shall establish its own procedure. The President of the National Assembly shall be elected for the duration of the legislature.
Article 69
The sessions of the National Assembly shall be public. However, they may meet in a closed session by their own initiative or on demand by the Prime Minister. Their internal procedure shall establish the methodology a closed session. The account of the internal debates from public sessions shall be published in the Official Journal.
