Ratification of Electoral Reforms

To add to Decree No. 131, dated January 11, 1982, containing the CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC, CHAPTER III-A OF THE NATIONAL REGISTRY OF PERSONS, which contains articles 43-A and 43-B, which must be read in the following manner: CHAPTER III-A. OF THE NATIONAL REGISTRY OF PERSONS.

The National Registry of Persons is an autonomous institution, of national security, technical strategic nature, with legal personality, with technical, budgetary and financial independence, has its domicile in the capital of the Republic, with competence and national jurisdiction. The Law of the National Registry of Persons shall establish everything relating to its structure and operation, said Law must be approved, reformed or repealed with the vote of at least two-thirds of the totality of the Deputies of the National Congress. The National Registry of Persons shall be administered by a Permanent Commission, which shall be composed of three (3) Principal Commissioners and two (2) Alternate Commissioners, who shall substitute the Principal Commissioners in their absences, elected by two-thirds of the totality of the members of the National Congress and shall serve their terms for a period of five (5) years, being eligible for reelection. The Principal Commissioners shall elect in their first session, among themselves, the President and the order of rotation of the presidency, for a period of one year. No Commissioner shall repeat in the presidency until the others shall have held it. The requirements and disqualifications established for Secretaries of State shall apply to being a Commissioner of the National Registry of Persons.

The public registry function corresponds to the National Registry of Persons, who is the State body responsible for providing certainty, authenticity and legal security to facts, vital acts and situations related to natural persons, with the objectives of guaranteeing their civil rights, systematizing registrations and annotations in its registers, responsible for administering the System of National Identification and for preparing and issuing the National Identification Document to all citizens; furthermore it shall be responsible for providing permanently, at no cost, to the National Electoral Council the purified information of citizens who have obtained said Identification Document, as well as deaths that have occurred and been registered in its records, for the preparation of the National Electoral Census." ARTICLE 2.- To reform articles 5, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 199, 202, 205, 213, 240, 242, 272, 274 and 303 of Decree No. 131, dated January 11, 1982, containing the CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC, which must be read in the following manner:

The Government ... To strengthen ... The referendum ... The plebiscite... The referendum ... Have the initiative to request the referendum or the plebiscite:

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  At least two percent (2%) of the citizens registered in the National Electoral Census, according to the data that must be provided periodically by the National Electoral Council to the National Congress;

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  At least ten (10) ...; and, 3) The President of the ... The National Congress must know and discuss such petitions and if it approves them must issue a Decree that determines the extremes of the consultation, ordering the National Electoral Council to convene, direct the consultations to the citizens. The percentages ... A Special Law... It corresponds exclusively to the National Electoral Council, to convene, organize and direct citizen consultations and to the Electoral Justice Tribunal, to resolve what is appropriate based on its competencies on these matters. The citizen consultations... The exercise of suffrage... The result of the consultations... The Special Law... The National Electoral Council, once it knows the official result within the term indicated by the Special Law, must inform the National Congress within a period of ten (10) days of the result of the consultation. If the initiative... The consultation on..." "ARTICLE 51. For the exercise of the electoral function, there is created a National Electoral Council and an Electoral Justice Tribunal, autonomous and independent, without subordination relationships with the Powers of State, of national security, with legal personality, jurisdiction and competence throughout the Republic. The acts and administrative, technical and logistic procedures shall correspond to the National Electoral Council and the acts and jurisdictional procedures in electoral matters shall correspond exclusively to the Electoral Justice Tribunal with jurisdiction and competence fixed by Law. The organization, attributes and operation of the entities referred to in this Article are established in this Constitution and the laws that in electoral and citizen consultation matters are issued, whose approval, reform or repeal requires a qualified majority of at least two-thirds of the votes of the totality of the deputies that make up the National Congress.

The National Electoral Council is composed of three (3) principal counselors and two (2) alternate counselors, elected by a qualified majority of at least two-thirds of the votes of the totality of the deputies that make up the National Congress, elected for a period of five (5) years, being eligible for reelection. To be a counselor of the National Electoral Council it is required to be: Honduran by birth, over thirty (30) years old, possess a university degree, of recognized suitability and be in full exercise of civil rights. Those who have kinship ties within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity among themselves and with the President of the Republic and Designates to the Presidency of the Republic, those who at the time of being elected are nominated or hold positions of popular election cannot be counselors.

The Electoral Justice Tribunal is the highest authority in matters of Electoral Justice. Against its sentences no remedy is available, without prejudice to what is provided in the Law on Constitutional Justice. An Electoral Procedural Law shall regulate the specific competencies, organization and operation of the Tribunal.

The Electoral Justice Tribunal is composed of three (3) principal magistrates and two (2) alternates, elected by a qualified majority of at least two-thirds of the totality of the votes of the deputies that make up the National Congress, they shall be elected for a period of five (5) years, being eligible for reelection. To be elected Magistrate of the Electoral Justice Tribunal the following requirements are required:

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  Be Honduran by birth.

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  Citizen in the enjoyment and exercise of his rights.

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  Lawyer with more than ten (10) years of experience in the exercise of the profession; and,

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  Over thirty-five (35) years old. Those who incur the same disqualifications that are established to be a Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice cannot be magistrates of the Electoral Justice Tribunal." "ARTICLE 55. The principal members of the National Electoral Council and the Electoral Justice Tribunal shall elect in their first session the President and the order of rotation of the presidency, which shall be exercised for a period of one year. No principal member shall repeat in the presidency until the others shall have held it. The Counselors of the National Electoral Council and the Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Tribunal cannot conduct or participate directly or indirectly in any partisan activity, nor hold any paid office, except for teaching and medical sciences.

Cannot be elected deputies:

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  The Counselors of the National Electoral Council, the Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Tribunal and the Commissioners of the National Registry of Persons. 9. ...; 10. ...; 11. ...; 12. ...; and, 13. ... These incompatibilities ...

The National Congress ... The Deputies shall be representatives of the people, their departmental distribution shall be made on the basis of the quotient indicated by the National Electoral Council, in accordance with the law that regulates electoral processes. In those departments that have a population less than the quotient indicated by the National Electoral Council, one Principal Deputy and their respective Alternate shall be elected. In those...

The following attributes correspond to the National Congress:

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  To conduct the scrutiny of votes and declare the election of the President, Designates to the Presidency; and deputies to the National Congress and to the Central American Parliament and members of Municipal Corporations, when the National Electoral Council shall not have done so;

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  To conduct the election of the Members of the Court of Accounts, Procurator and Sub-Procurator General of the Republic, Counselors of the National Electoral Council and Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Tribunal, Attorney General of the Republic and Deputy Attorney General, National Commissioner of Human Rights, Superintendent of Concessions, Commissioners of the National Registry of Persons;

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  To approve or disapprove the administrative conduct of high officials of the Executive Branch, Judicial Branch and National Electoral Council, Court of Accounts, Office of the Procurator General of the Republic, Public Ministry, National Commissioner of Human Rights, National Registry of Persons, Decentralized Institutions and all authorities to whom it corresponds to the National Congress to elect based on the Constitution of the Republic and the Law, as well as the other Auxiliary and Special Bodies of the State;

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  ...; and, 45. ..." "ARTICLE 213. Exclusively have the initiative of Law the Deputies to the National Congress, the President of the Republic, the Secretaries of State; as well as the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Electoral Council in matters of their competence and a number of at least three thousand (3,000) citizens under the mechanism of citizen initiative." "ARTICLE 240. Cannot be elected President:

  • 1)

    The Designates to the Presidency of the Republic; Secretaries and Sub-Secretaries of State, Counselors of the National Electoral Council, Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Tribunal, Magistrates and Judges of the Judicial Branch, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Managers, Sub-Managers, Directors, Sub-Directors, Executive Secretaries of Decentralized Institutions; Procurator and Sub-Procurator General of the Republic; Magistrates of the Court of Accounts; who have performed functions during the six (6) months prior to the date of the election of the President of the Republic;

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    ...;

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    ...; and, 7. ...

In temporary absences... If the election of the President ... The Council of Secretaries ... These elections ... Once the elections are held, the National Electoral Council or in its absence the National Congress or the Supreme Court of Justice as appropriate, shall make the corresponding declaration, within twenty (20) days following the date of the election and the elected shall immediately take possession of their offices until completing the corresponding constitutional term. While the new authorities...

The Armed Forces ... Are instituted... Shall cooperate ... In order to guarantee the free exercise of suffrage, the custody, transport and surveillance of electoral materials and other aspects of security of the process, the President of the Republic shall place the Armed Forces at the disposal of the National Electoral Council, from one (1) month before the elections, until the declaration of the same.

The Armed Forces ... Shall participate in... Furthermore they shall cooperate with public security institutions, at the request of the Secretariat of State in charge of Security, to combat terrorism, arms trafficking and organized crime, as well as in the protection of the Powers of State, the National Electoral Council, at their request, in its installation and operation." "ARTICLE 303. The power ... The power to administer justice in electoral matters and citizen consultations corresponds to the Electoral Justice Tribunal, created in this Constitution in the cases and with the limitations indicated by law. In no lawsuit ... Neither..." ARTICLE 3.- TRANSITIONAL.- The current Magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal shall remain in office until the new election is made for the new National Electoral Council created. ARTICLE 4.- This Decree must be constitutionally ratified by this National Congress in the subsequent Ordinary Legislature and shall enter into force as of the day of its publication in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". Done in the City of Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, in the Hall of Sessions of the National Congress, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of January of two thousand nineteen. (S) MAURICIO OLIVA HERRERA, PRESIDENT. (S) JOSÉ TOMÁS ZAMBRANO MOLINA, SECRETARY. (S) SALVADOR VALERIANO PINEDA, SECRETARY. Therefore: Let it be published.