Electoral Reforms

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 as follows: CHAPTER III-A OF THE NATIONAL REGISTRY OF PERSONS

The National Registry of Persons is an autonomous institution of national security, strategic technical, 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of Persons shall establish everything related to its structure and functioning, said Law must be approved, reformed or repealed with the vote of at least two-thirds of the total number of Deputies of the National Congress.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 for the Principal Commissioners in their absences, elected by two-thirds of the total number of members of the National Congress and shall exercise their offices for a period of five (5) years, and may be reelected. The Principal Commissioners shall elect in their first session, from 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 exercised it. The requirements and inabilities established for State Secretaries shall apply to be a Commissioner of the National Registry of Persons.

The public registral function corresponds to the National Registry of Persons, which 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, in charge of administering the National Identification System and of preparing and issuing the National Identification Document to all citizens; it shall also be in charge of providing permanently, at no cost, to the National Electoral Council the verified information of citizens who have obtained said Identification Document, as well as of deaths that have occurred and been registered in its records, for the preparation of the National Electoral Census.

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 as follows:

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

• 1)

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

• 2)

  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 terms of the consultation, ordering the National Electoral Council to convene and direct the consultations to 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 Court to resolve what is appropriate based on its competencies on these matters. Citizen consultations... The exercise of suffrage... The result of 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 about the result of the consultation. If the initiative... The consultation on..." "ARTICLE 51. For the exercise of electoral function, a National Electoral Council and an Electoral Justice Court are created, autonomous and independent, without relations of subordination with the Powers of the State, of national security, with legal personality, jurisdiction and competence throughout the Republic. Administrative, technical and logistical acts and procedures shall correspond to the National Electoral Council and jurisdictional acts and procedures in electoral matters shall correspond exclusively to the Electoral Justice Court with jurisdiction and competence established by Law. The organization, powers and functioning of the bodies referred to in this Article are established in this Constitution and the laws that are issued on electoral and citizen consultation matters, whose approval, reform or repeal requires a qualified majority of at least two-thirds of the votes of the total number of 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 qualified majority of at least two-thirds of the votes of the total number of deputies that make up the National Congress, elected for a period of five (5) years, and may be reelected. To be a counselor of the National Electoral Council the following is required: to be Honduran by birth, over thirty (30) years old, possess a university degree, of recognized suitability and be in the 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 cannot be counselors, those who at the time of being elected are nominated or hold positions of popular election.

The Electoral Justice Court is the highest authority in Electoral Justice matters. No appeal lies against its sentences, without prejudice to what is provided in the Law on Constitutional Justice. An Electoral Procedural Law shall regulate the specific competencies, organization and functioning of the Court.

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

• 1)

  To be Honduran by birth.

• 2)

  Citizen in the enjoyment and exercise of rights.

• 3)

  Lawyer with more than ten (10) years of experience in professional practice; and,

• 4)

  Over thirty-five (35) years old. Those who incur in the same inabilities established to be a Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice cannot be magistrates of the Electoral Justice Court." "ARTICLE 55. The principal members of the National Electoral Council and of the Electoral Justice Court 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 exercised it. The Counselors of the National Electoral Council and the Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Court may not conduct or participate directly or indirectly in any partisan activity, nor hold any paid position, except teaching and medical sciences.

Cannot be elected deputies:

• 1)

  ...;

• 2)

  3. 4. 6. 7. 8. The Counselors of the National Electoral Council, the Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Court and the Commissioners of the National Registry of Persons. 9. ...; These incompatibilities...

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

The following powers correspond to the National Congress: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. To verify votes and declare the election of 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 has not done so; 8. 9. 10. 11. To elect the Members of the Superior Court of Accounts, Procurator and Subprocurator General of the Republic, Counselors of the National Electoral Council and Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Court, Attorney General of the Republic and Deputy Attorney General, National Commissioner of Human Rights, Superintendent of Concessions, Commissioners of the National Registry of Persons; 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Approve or disapprove the administrative conduct of high-ranking officials of the Executive Power, Judicial Branch and of the National Electoral Council, Superior Court of Accounts, General Procuracy of the Republic, Public Ministry, National Commissioner of Human Rights, National Registry of Persons, Decentralized Institutions and all authorities that based on the Constitution of the Republic and the Law correspond to be elected by the National Congress, as well as the other Auxiliary and Special Bodies of the State; 21 ...; 22 ...; 23 ...; 24 ...; 25 ...; 26 ...; 27 ...; 28 ...; 29 ...; 30 ...; 31 ...; 32 ...; 33 ...; 34 ...; 35 ...; 36 ...; 37 ...; 38 ...; 39 ...; 40 ...; 41 ...; 42 ...; 43 ...;

In temporary absences... 44 ...; and, 45 ..." If the election of the President... "ARTICLE 213. Exclusively have the initiative of Law the Deputies to the National Congress, the President of the Republic, the State Secretaries; 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; State Secretaries and Subsecretaries, Counselors of the National Electoral Council, Magistrates of the Electoral Justice Court, Magistrates and Judges of the Judicial Branch, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Managers, Submanagers, Directors, Subdirectors, Executive Secretaries of Decentralized Institutions; Procurator and Subprocurator General of the Republic; Magistrates of the Superior Court of Accounts; who have exercised functions during the six (6) months prior to the date of the election of the President of the Republic;

• 2)

  3. The Council of Secretaries ... These elections... Once the elections are held, the National Electoral Council or failing that the National Congress or the Supreme Court of Justice if applicable, 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 period. While the new authorities...

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

The Armed Forces... Shall participate in... They shall also cooperate with public security institutions, at the request of the State Secretary for Security Affairs, to combat terrorism, arms trafficking and organized crime, as well as in the protection of the Powers of the State, the National Electoral Council, at their request, in its installation and functioning." "ARTICLE 303. The power... The power to administer justice in electoral matters and citizen consultations corresponds to the Electoral Justice Court, created in this Constitution in the cases and with the limitations indicated by law. In no judgment... Nor...