TITLE III

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

Article 45: The legislative power belongs to the Parliament.

Article 46: The Parliament is composed of two (2) representative assemblies : the National Assembly and the Senate.

Article 47: The deputies to the National Assembly shall be elected for five (5) years by direct suffrage. The senators shall be elected for six (6) years by indirect suffrage. They shall be responsible for the representation of the territorial districts (collectivités territoriales) of the Republic. Mauritanians residing abroad shall be represented in the Senate. The senators shall be renewed by one third (1/3) every two (2) years. All Mauritanian citizens who possess their civil and political rights are eligible to be deputies, if they are at least twenty-five (25) years old, and are eligible to be senators, if they are at least thirty-five (35) years old.

Article 48: An organic law shall determine the conditions for the election of the members of the Parliament, their number, their salary, their conditions of eligibility, and the system of ineligibilities and incompatibilities. It shall also determine the conditions under which, in the case of a vacancy of a seat, the persons called upon to replace deputies or senators shall be elected, until the complete or partial renewal of the Assembly to which they belong.

Article 49: The Constitutional Council shall rule in cases where the regularity of an election of members of parliament or their eligibility is contested.

Article 50: No member of parliament may be prosecuted, pursued, arrested, detained or tried because of the opinions or votes voiced by him during the exercise of his functions. No member of parliament, while parliament is in session, may be prosecuted or arrested for a criminal or penal matter, except which the authorization of the assembly to which he belongs, unless it is a case of flagrante delicto. No member of parliament, while parliament is out of session, may be arrested, except with the authorization of the office of the assembly to which he belongs, unless it is a case of flagrante delicto, or authorized prospection or a judicial sentence. The detention or prosecution of a member of parliament shall be suspended if the assembly to which he belongs demands it.

Article 51: All mandatory votes (mandat impératif) shall be null. The right to vote by the members of parliament is personal. The organic law, in exceptional circumstances, may authorize the delegation votes. In this case, no one may receive the delegation of more than one vote. Any deliberation outside the hours of the parliament sessions or outside the premises of the parliament shall be null. The President of the Republic may ask the Constitutional Council to proclaim this state of nullity. The sessions of the National Assembly and of the Senate shall be public. The minutes of the debates shall be published in the Journal Officiel. Each of the assemblies may meet in closed session upon request by the government or by one quarter (1/4) of the members present.

Article 52: The parliament shall meet in regular session for two (2) ordinary sessions each year. The first ordinary session will convene during the first fortnight in November. The second will convene during the second fortnight in May. The length of each ordinary session may not exceed two (2) months.

Article 53: The Parliament may meet in a special session at the request of the President of the Republic or the majority of the members of the National Assembly, for a specific agenda. The length of a special session may not exceed one month. The special sessions shall be convened and adjourned by a decree from the President of the Republic.

Article 54: The members of the government shall have access to the two (2) assemblies. They shall be heard when they so request. They may be assisted by government commissions. 

Article 55: The President of the National Assembly shall be elected for the duration of the legislature. The President of the Senate shall be elected after each partial renewal of the Senate.