The King may dissolve, by dahir, the two Chambers of Parliament or one of them, under the conditions provided for in Articles 96, 97 and 98.
Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco
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The King may address messages to the Nation and to Parliament. The messages shall be read before the two Chambers and may not be subject to any debate therein.
The King shall be the Supreme Chief of the Royal Armed Forces. He shall appoint to military posts and may delegate this right.
A High Council of Security is hereby created, as a body for consultation on the strategies of the country's internal and external security and for the management of crisis situations. The Council shall also ensure the institutionalization of the standards of good security governance. The King shall preside over this Council and…
The King shall accredit ambassadors to foreign States and international organizations. Ambassadors and representatives of international organizations shall be accredited to Him. He shall sign and ratify treaties. However, treaties of peace or union, or those relating to the delimitation of borders, treaties of commerce or those…
The King shall preside over the High Council of the Judicial Power.
The King shall approve by dahir the appointment of magistrates by the High Council of the Judicial Power.
The King shall exercise the right of pardon.
When the integrity of the national territory is threatened or when events occur that impede the regular functioning of the constitutional institutions, the King may, after consulting the Head of Government, the President of the Chamber of Representatives, the President of the Chamber of Councillors, as well as the President of t…
Parliament shall be composed of two Chambers, the Chamber of Representatives and the Chamber of Councillors. Their members shall hold their mandate from the Nation. Their right to vote shall be personal and may not be delegated. The opposition shall be an essential component of the two Chambers. It shall participate in the functions of legislation and control as provided for, in particular, in this Title.
Any member of either of the two Chambers who renounces the political affiliation in whose name he stood as a candidate in the elections or the parliamentary group or grouping to which he belongs shall forfeit his mandate. The Constitutional Court, seized by the president of the Chamber concerned, shall declare the vacancy of the…
Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected for five years by direct universal suffrage. The legislature shall end at the opening of the October session of the fifth year following the election of the House. The number of representatives, the electoral system, the principles of electoral districting, the conditions…
The House of Councillors shall comprise at least 90 members and at most 120, elected by indirect universal suffrage for six years, according to the following distribution: - three fifths of the members representing the territorial collectivities. This number shall be distributed among the regions of the Kingdom in proportion to…
No member of Parliament may be prosecuted, sought, arrested, detained or tried on account of an opinion or vote expressed by him in the exercise of his functions, except where the opinion expressed calls into question the monarchical form of the State or the Muslim religion or constitutes an infringement of the respect owed to the King.
Parliament shall sit for two sessions per year. The King shall preside over the opening of the first session, which begins on the second Friday of October. The second session shall open on the second Friday of April. When Parliament has sat for at least four months during each session, closure may be pronounced by decree.
Parliament may be convened in extraordinary session, either by decree or at the request of one third of the members of the House of Representatives or of the majority of those of the House of Councillors. Extraordinary sessions of Parliament shall be held on the basis of a determined agenda. When the latter is exhausted, the session shall be closed by decree.
Ministers shall have access to each Chamber and to their commissions. They may be assisted by commissioners designated by them. In addition to the permanent Commissions mentioned in the preceding paragraph, commissions of inquiry may be created on the initiative of the King or at the request of one third of the members of the Ho…
The sittings of the Chambers of Parliament shall be public. The full record of debates shall be published in the Bulletin Officiel of Parliament. Each Chamber may sit in secret committee, at the request of the Head of Government or of one third of its members. Meetings of the Commissions of Parliament shall be secret. The rules…
Each Chamber shall establish and vote its rules of procedure. However, they may not be applied until the Constitutional Court has declared them consistent with the provisions of this Constitution. The two Chambers of Parliament shall, when drafting their respective rules of procedure, take into consideration the requirements of…
Parliament shall exercise legislative power. It shall vote laws, monitor the action of the government and evaluate public policies. An enabling law may authorise the government, for a limited period and for a specific purpose, to take by decree measures that normally fall within the domain of the law. The decrees shall enter int…
The domain of the law shall comprise, in addition to matters expressly assigned to it by other articles of the Constitution: - fundamental freedoms and rights provided for in the preamble and in other articles of this Constitution; - family status and civil status; - the principles and rules of the health system; - the regime of…
Matters other than those falling within the domain of the law shall fall within the regulatory domain.
Texts adopted in legislative form may be amended by decree, after the concurring opinion of the Constitutional Court, when they have been adopted in a domain assigned to the exercise of regulatory power.
A state of siege may be declared, by dahir countersigned by the Head of Government, for a period of thirty days. This period may be extended only by law.
Parliament shall vote the Finance Law, tabled as a priority before the Chamber of Representatives, under the conditions provided for by an organic law. That law shall determine the nature of the information, documents and data necessary to enrich parliamentary debates on the Finance Bill. Parliament shall vote only once the inve…
The Government shall submit annually to Parliament a settlement law for the finance law during the second financial year following that of the implementation of the said finance law. This law shall include the balance sheet of the investment budgets whose duration has expired.
Parliament and the Government shall ensure the preservation of the equilibrium of the State's finances. The Government may raise, with reasons, the inadmissibility of any proposal or amendment formulated by members of Parliament where their adoption would result, in relation to the finance law, either in a reduction of public resources or in the creation or aggravation of public charges. On the Exercise of Legislative Power
The initiative for laws belongs concurrently to the Head of Government and to members of Parliament. Bills shall be deposited in priority with the Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives. However, bills relating particularly to territorial collectivities, regional development and social affairs shall be deposited in priority with the Bureau of the Chamber of Councillors.
The Government may raise the inadmissibility of any proposal or amendment that does not fall within the domain of the law. In the event of disagreement, the Constitutional Court shall rule, within a period of eight days, at the request of the President of either Chamber of Parliament or of the Head of Government.
Bills and proposals for laws shall be submitted for examination to the committees, whose activity shall continue between sessions.
The Government may adopt, between sessions, with the agreement of the relevant committees of the two Chambers, decree-laws which must, during the following ordinary session of Parliament, be submitted to Parliament for ratification. The draft decree-law shall be deposited with the Bureau of the Chamber of Representatives. It sha…
The agenda of each Chamber shall be established by its Bureau. It shall include bills and proposals for laws, as a priority, and in the order fixed by the Government. At least one day per month shall be reserved for the examination of proposals for laws, including those of the opposition.
The members of each Chamber of Parliament and the Government shall have the right of amendment. After the opening of the debate, the Government may oppose the examination of any amendment that has not previously been submitted to the committee concerned. If the Government so requests, the Chamber seized of the text under discuss…
Any bill or proposal for a law shall be examined successively by the two Chambers of Parliament in order to arrive at the adoption of an identical text. The Chamber of Representatives shall deliberate first and successively on bills and on proposals for laws initiated by its members; the Chamber of Councillors shall deliberate f…
Organic bills and proposals for organic laws shall be submitted to the deliberation of the Chamber of Representatives only after a period of ten days following their deposit with the Bureau of the Chamber and in accordance with the same procedure referred to in article 84. They shall be definitively adopted by an absolute majori…
The organic bills provided for by this Constitution must have been submitted for approval to Parliament within a period not exceeding the duration of the first legislature following the promulgation of the said Constitution. TITLE V ON THE EXECUTIVE POWER
The Government shall consist of the Head of Government and ministers, and may also include secretaries of State. An organic law shall define, in particular, the rules relating to the organization and conduct of the Government's business and the status of its members. It shall also determine cases of incompatibility with governme…
After the appointment of the members of the Government by the King, the Head of Government shall present and set out before the two Chambers of Parliament assembled the programme that he intends to implement. This programme must set out the guidelines of the action that the Government proposes to conduct in the various sectors o…
The government shall exercise executive power. Under the authority of the Head of Government, the government shall implement its government programme, ensure the execution of laws, have the administration at its disposal and supervise public establishments and enterprises and exercise tutelage over them.
The Head of Government shall exercise regulatory power and may delegate some of his powers to ministers. The regulatory acts of the Head of Government shall be countersigned by the ministers responsible for their execution.
The Head of Government shall appoint to civil posts in public administrations and to high offices in public establishments and enterprises, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 49 of this Constitution. He may delegate this power.
Under the presidency of the Head of Government, the Council of Government shall deliberate on the following questions and texts: - the general policy of the State before its presentation to the Council of Ministers; - public policies; - sectoral policies; - the commitment of the government's responsibility before the House of Re…
Ministers shall be responsible, each in the sector for which he is responsible and within the framework of government solidarity, for the implementation of the government's policy. Ministers shall carry out the missions entrusted to them by the Head of Government. They shall report thereon to the Council of Government. They may delegate part of their attributions to the Secretaries of State.
Members of the government shall be criminally liable before the courts of the Kingdom for crimes and offences committed in the exercise of their functions. The law shall determine the procedure relating to this liability. TITLE VI RELATIONS BETWEEN THE POWERS Relations between the King and the legislative power
The King may request the two Chambers of Parliament to proceed with a new reading of any draft or proposed law. The request for a new reading shall be made by message. This new reading may not be refused.
The King may, after consulting the President of the Constitutional Court and informing the Head of Government, the President of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors, dissolve by dahir the two Chambers or only one of them. The dissolution shall take place after a message addressed by the King to the Nation.
The election of the new Parliament or of the new Chamber shall take place no later than two months after the dissolution.
When a Chamber is dissolved, the one succeeding it may not be dissolved until one year after its election, unless no governmental majority emerges within the newly elected House of Representatives.
The declaration of war, decided in the Council of Ministers, in accordance with Article 49 of this Constitution, shall take place after communication made by the King to Parliament. Relations between the legislative and executive powers
One sitting per week shall be reserved in each Chamber, as a priority, for questions of its members and for the government's answers. The government must give its answer within twenty days following the date on which it was seised of the question. Answers to questions of general policy shall be given by the Head of Government. O…
