ART. 102. The law shall regulate the mode of procedure against the President of the Republic, the secretaries of State and the judges in the case of crimes or offenses committed by them either in the exercise of their functions or outside thereof. CHAPTER IV [BIS].— COMMUNAL INSTITUTIONS ART. 103. There shall be one council for each commune. The president of the communal council has the title of communal magistrate. This institution shall be regulated by law. The law shall determine in the communes or in the arrondissements the civil officials who shall represent directly the executive power. ART. 104. The following principles must form the bases of the communal institutions: 1. The election by the primary assemblies of the communal councils every two years. 2. The attribution to the communal councils of all that may be of interest to the commune, subject, however, to subsequent approval of their acts in the cases and in the manner determined by law. 3. The publicity of the meetings of the councils within the limits established by law. 4. The publicity of budgets and accounts. 5. The intervention of the executive power to prevent the councils from going beyond their attributions and doing injury to the general interests. ART. 105. The communal magistrates shall be paid by their com mune. ART. 106. The communal council shall not spend every month more than one twelfth of the total amount voted for its budget. CHAPTER V.-PRIMARY ASSEMBLIES ART. 107. The primary assemblies shall meet without previous convocation in their respective communes on January 10 of each even-numbered year in the manner and form established by law. They shall have for their object the election, at the times fixed by the Constitution, of the deputies of the people, the senators of the Republic, the communal councilors, and to decide on the amendments proposed to the Constitution. They shall not take cognizance of any other matters than those attributed to them by the present Constitution. They are bound to adjourn sine die as soon as this object is accomplished. ART. 108. The law establishes the conditions required to exercise the right of suffrage in the primary assemblies. TITLE IV.-FINANCES ART. 109. The imposts for the benefit of the State and of the communes shall only be established by a law. No charge shall be levied on the communes except upon the formal consent thereof. ART. 110. The laws establishing the imposts shall be enforced only for one year. ART. 111. No distinction in regard to imposts shall ever be made. No exemption, no increase or decrease of imposts shall be made except by a law. ART. 112. No pension, gratuity, subvention or subsidy of any kind, to be paid by the public treasury, shall be granted except by virtue of a law proposed by the executive power. ART. 113. The simultaneous holding of offices under the pay of the State is formally prohibited, except positions in secondary or higher education. ART. 114. The budget submitted by each secretary of State shall be divided into chapters and must be voted by articles. The shifting of appropriations is forbidden. The Secretary of State for Finance shall be bound, on his personal responsibility, not to disburse each month, for the benefit of each ministerial department, more than one-twelfth of the amount appropriated in its own budget; an exception may be made for extraordinary cases by decision of the Council of the Secretaries of State. The general accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the Republic shall be kept by the Secretary of State for Finance under the system of accounting to be established by law. The fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year. ART. 115. Every year the legislative body shall settle: 1. The accounts of receipts and expenditures for the preceding year or years. 2. The general budget of the State containing the rough estimate and the portion of the funds assigned annually to each secretary of State. But no resolution or amendment shall be introduced with the budget for the purpose of reducing or increasing the salaries of public officials. All changes of this nature shall only be effected by an amendment of the law. ART. 116. The general accounts and the budgets provided for in the preceding article should be submitted to the legislative body by the Secretary of State for Finance at the latest within eight days of the opening of the legislative session. The examination and the liquidation of the accounts of the general administration and of all accounts against the public treasury shall be made according to the manner established by law. ART. 117. In case the legislative body, for any reason whatever, should fail to approve the budget of one or more of the ministerial departments before its adjournment, the budget or budgets of the interested departments in force for the current budgetary year shall be maintained for the following budgetary year. TITLE V.-THE PUBLIC FORCE ART. 118. An armed force to be known as the Gendarmerie d'Haïti shall be established to preserve order, guarantee the rights of the people, and police the cities and the country. It shall be the only armed force of the Republic. ART. 119. The regulations for the maintenance of discipline in the Gendarmerie and the repression of the offenses committed by those who compose it shall be established by the executive power. These regulations shall have the force of law. These regulations shall establish the organization of the courts martial of the Gendarmerie, shall prescribe their powers and shall determine the obligations of their members and the rights of the individuals who are to be judged by them. The sentences pronounced by courts martial of the Gendarmerie shall be subject only to revision by the Court of Cassation, and this revision shall be confined to questions of jurisdiction and of excess of powers. TITLE VI.-GENERAL PROVISIONS ART. 120. The national colors shall be blue and red horizontally placed. The coat of arms of the Republic shall consist of a palm tree surmounted by a cap of liberty adorned by a trophy with the legend: "L'Union fait la force." ART. 121. No oath shall be required except by virtue of the Constitution or of a law. ART. 122. The national holidays shall be: That of the Independence, January 1, and that of Agriculture, May 1. The legal holidays shall be determined by law. ART. 123. No law, decree, or rule of the public administration shall be obligatory until it has been published in the form, established by law. ART. 124. All elections shall be made by secret ballot. ART. 125. The state of siege shall not be declared except where the external or internal security is in imminent peril. The act of the President of the Republic declaring a state of siege must be countersigned by the majority of the secretaries of State present in the capital. An account shall be rendered of it at the opening of the houses by the executive power. ART. 126. The effects of the state of siege shall be regulated by a special law. ART. 127. The present Constitution and all the treaties actually in force or to be concluded hereafter, and all the laws decreed in accordance with this Constitution or with these treaties, shall constitute the law of the country, and their relative superiority shall be determined by the order in which they are here mentioned. All the provisions of the laws which are not contrary to the provisions of this Constitution or to the treaties actually in force or to be concluded hereafter, shall be maintained until they have been formally abrogated or amended; but those which are contrary thereto shall be and shall remain abrogated. TITLE VII.-THE REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION ART. 128. The amendments of the Constitution must be adopted by the majority of votes of all the electors of the Republic. Each of the two branches of the legislative power, or the President of the Republic, through a message to the legislative power, may propose amendments to the present Const tution. The amendments proposed shall not be subject to popular ratification until after their adoption by a two-thirds majority of each legislative house sitting separately. These amendments shall then be published immediately in the Moniteur. For three months before voting on the proposed amendments, the texts thereof shall be posted by each communal magistrate in the principal public places of his commune, and shall be printed and published twice a month in the newspapers. At the next biennial session of the primary assemblies, the proposed amendments shall be submitted to vote, one by one, by yeas and nays, in secret and separate ballot, and those amendments which should have obtained the absolute majority of votes in all the territory of the Republic shall become an integral part of the Constitution from the day on which the legislative body convenes. SPECIAL ARTICLE All the acts of the Government of the United States during its military occupation of Haiti are ratified and validated. A. No Haitian shall be amenable to civil or criminal prosecutions by reason of any act executed by virtue of orders received during the occupation or under its authority. The acts of the courts martial during the occupation shall not be subject to revision, without prejudice, however, to the right of pardon. The acts of the executive power performed up to the promulgation of the present Constitution are likewise ratified and validated. TITLE VIII.-TRANSITORY PROVISIONS ART. A. The duration of the mandate of the citizen President of the Republic at the moment of the adoption of the present Constitution shall come to an end on May 15, 1922. ART. B. The duration of the mandate of the communal councilors existing at the time of the adoption of the present Constitution shall come to an end in January 1920. ART. C. The first election of members of the legislative body after the adoption of the present Constitution shall take place on January 10 of an even-numbered year. The year shall be fixed by a decree of the President of the Republic published at least three months before the meeting of the primary assemblies. The session of the legislative body then elected shall convene on the constitutional date immediately following the first election. ART. D. A Council of State, created in accordance with the same principles as those of the decree of April 5, 1916, and composed of 21 members distributed among the different departments, shall exercise the legislative power until the legislative body is constituted, on. which date the Council of State shall cease to exist. ART. E. The irremovability of judges shall be suspended for a period of six months beginning from the date of the promulgation: of the present Constitution. |