Mandate of MPs : Minister Advances Reasons For Extension

Following the tabling of bill No 1056/PJL/AN to extend the term of office of Members of the National Assembly (MPs) in a plenary sitting, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Assemblies, Bolvine Wakata on June 27, 2019 presented and defended before the Committee on Constitutional Laws reasons for the extension of the mandate of MPs by two months. 
Minister Bolvine Wakata said the further extension (given that the Head of State had earlier on July 11, 2018 with decree No. 2018/406 prolonging the mandate of Councillors and MPs for a period of twelve months beginning from 15 October, 2018) has been warranted by the need to enable the normal holding of the ordinary parliamentary session of November, which is traditionally devoted to scrutinizing the finance bill. The Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Assemblies added that the two months proposed extension is equally to comply with the various legal timelines provided for under the Constitution and Law No 2012/1 of April 19, 2012 relating to the Electoral Code in order to harmonise the holding of the twin legislative and municipal elections which has become a tradition in the country’s electoral process since 2007. 
The bill which was prepared in pursuance of Article 15(4) of Law No 96/6 of 18 January 1996 to revise the Constitution of June 2, 1972 provides that “in case of serious crisis or where circumstances so warrant, the President of the Republic may, after consultation with the President of the Constitutional Council and the Bureau of the National Assembly and the Senate, request the National Assembly to decide by law, to extend or abridge its term of office.”