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PLAN OF REFORM ADOPTED IN THE VALLEYS OF ANDORRA 31ST of MAY, 1866 1. Every voter must be an Andorran living in a parish, the head of a family, of age, and in his right mind. A foreigner married to a woman who is an only child and heiress can also be a voter; provided he has lived for not less than three years in the country, and has not been found guilty of contempt or indifference for the things and affairs of the country, according to the judgment of the honorable Common (Comu) whenever there is doubt, save that recourse can always be had to the sovereign Prince. 2. Those who shall have received the majority of votes in the elections contemplated in Article 1 and carried out according to the rules of Article 5, may be elected commissioners of the people. 3. To be elected a qualified communal authority or a member of the General Council, it is necessary first to have the qualifications of Article 1, to be a person of good life and customs, to possess one's family estate and means corresponding to the interests to be administered as a qualified authority. However, although he may unite in himself all the conditions of a true citizen, no one may be elected a member of the municipalities or of the General Council if he should have debts to the Common unless he shall offer the equivalent thereof to the said Common. 4. The elections take place in each parish in the principal locality on a day known and agreed upon as between the local authority and the people. After fixing the day and the hour of the voting and the place, the local authorities shall meet in order to preside over the poll. The board of elections (presidencia) shall be composed of at least a president, two assessors, and a secretary. The major or the minor consul shall be president, or lacking both, then any individual designated by them. The other members of the Common and the four members of the General Council shall also have the right to assist the president. Those shall be elected who shall have obtained a majority of the votes of those present, be they few or many. The representatives of the cuarts that make up each parish may become members of the board of elections. The individuals possessing the most family wealth shall initially be members of the board of elections. 5. For the designation of commissioners of accounts, the proper authority shall preside and the people alone shall vote. Initially the board of elections shall be constituted according to Article 4. The voters can record before the board of elections in writing or orally their identification and their ballot. If certain cuarts of one parish can present one commissioner and the other cuarts another, the vote can be separate if there is agreement on this manner of procedure, and it can be the same for other votings. Once the polls are closed, the votes shall be counted. Those who shall have obtained an absolute majority shall be proclaimed legally commissioned. If no one has obtained an absolute majority, those who have received the greatest number of votes shall be submitted to a new vote; the voters should vote for one of them and he who shall have the majority shall be proclaimed legally commissioned. If in the first round of voting one name receives the same number of votes as the two most favored, the three names shall be submitted to a second round, and an absolute majority shall decide, as has just been provided. If by chance no one obtains an absolute majority, the two names having received the most votes shall be retained and the majority shall decide on the following round as has just been provided; and if equality of votes continues, the two names shall be placed in an urn and he shall be elected who is first drawn. Those elected who shall have obtained a majority of votes and who accept the designation shall be named legally commissioned for two years, at the expiration of which they can be re-elected if they obtain again a majority of the votes, depending always upon their willingness to accept the commission. They shall participate in drawing up the accounts; an abstract to this end shall be submitted to them in advance by the consuls of the Common. If there is not agreement, the General Council shall decide, except that recourse shall be had to the Sovereign Prince if an accord is not achieved within the Council. 6. The year of the consulate shall end on December 31; the consuls must render their accounts between the said date and February 2 of the following year. To name the authorities constituting the Common, all the voters of each parish shall have a right to vote. The board of elections shall be designated in conformity with Article 4. The voters shall vote first, then the authorities, for the members destined to form the Common and fulfilling the conditions of Article 3, the vote taking place according to Article 5. If the first round shall not result in an absolute majority, a second round shall take place in conformity with Article 5, and those who shall have received the absolute majority of those present shall be named. Once constituted, the Common shall name, by majority, the major consul and minor consul in accordance with the provisions of Article 8. The body shall then be organized with all the duties, obligations and prerogatives which pertained to previous communal authorities, with the exception of the prerogatives and representation in the General Council. For the nomination of the major and minor consuls, the alternative form up to now in usage among the cuarts constituting each parish shall be observed. All service shall be gratuitous. 7. To name the four members of the General Council, all of the voters of each parish shall also have the right to vote. The communal authorities shall preside as provided; initially the provisions of Article 4 shall be observed. The voters shall vote first on the personages having the qualifications fixed in Article 3, and then the authorities. Those elected shall be designated, one by one, according to Article 5; in the, absence of an absolute majority on the first round, there shall be a second in the form of the aforesaid Article 5; those who shall obtain the absolute majority of those present shall be named members of the General Council. The General Council shall have the same prerogatives as hitherto, as much in the nomination of the syndics as for that of all other chiefs, these in order that its members shall be relieved of the labors of the parish which will be in the charge of the communal authorities. The services of the Council shall also be gratuitous. In order that the term of the mandate of a communal authority and of a general councillor shall equally be of four years, initially half of the elected shall serve four years and the other half two years; to determine the half whose offices shall expire, Article 8 shall be observed. 8. The consuls named shall serve four years, like the other members of the Common, with the rank of consul during the two first years and that of councillor in the two others. In consequence the members of the Common should every two years choose the two consuls above mentioned among the five new ones, in such a manner that the elected can be equally two years consuls and two years councillors, like their predecessors and so on, henceforth. Those elected shall obtain the absolute majority of the votes of the members of the Common; or lacking this, a relative majority, observing an alternation by virtue of which the major consul shall once out of twice be of one group of cuarts and the minor of the other, and the opposite on the following renewal. During the two first years the oldest man of one group of cuarts and the oldest man of the other group shall be councillors. Then with the renewing of half of the members of the Common it shall be so done that the groups of cuarts constituting each parish shall have the number of representatives appropriate to it. The changing of the said half shall for the first time be effected in observance of the forms hereafter stated; after the first time, it will happen that one of the two halves will have fulfilled the term of four years, while the other will have only served two years; and replacing will be necessary for the five, as having finished the four years of their office. To replace for the first time the half leaving office, the names of all of the members of the Common shall be placed in an urn with the exception of those of the two consuls ending their consulates and remaining in the Common, as has been said, in the capacity of councillors until the end of their four years. Of the eight names submitted to the drawing, five shall be drawn and these shall be replaced by an election according to Article 6. If the parish is divided into two groups of cuarts, four names of one group shall be placed in one urn, four of the other in a second; three names shall be drawn from the first and two from the second in order to obtain the five that will form the half. The nomination of substitutes shall be made on the basis of three for the group from which three have been drawn, and of two for the other group from which two have been drawn. The determination of the half of the members of the General Council destined to be changed after two years shall be made, the first time, by placing in an urn the names of the four members from each parish and drawing out two; the individuals thus designated shall be replaced by election as has been said in Article 7. 9. Those who shall be legally elected by the Common shall be obliged to serve if they have not reached the age of retirement, or if they do not have another public or personal obligation. However, those who have been members of the General Council, battles, provosts, or syndies cannot be obliged to serve for the consulate, even by the will of the Common, unless four years have passed since the day when they left these offices until the one on which they are recalled by a majority to be authorities. 10. Those elected to the General Council are equally obliged to serve, if they have not reached the age of retirement or have not some public or personal obligation, and if four years have passed since the time they were members of the General Council, battles, provosts, or syndies, up to the time on which they again become authorities. If one of the four members of the General Council should happen to die, the remaining three shall take care first to name a substitute, who shall be chosen from the corresponding group of cuarts and shall serve only the unexpired term, and then notify the General Council. If a member of the Common should die, this body shall take care to name a substitute, who shall be chosen from the corresponding group of cuarts and shall serve only the unexpired term, and his election shall be by an absolute majority of the votes of that body or, for lack of that, a relative majority. If a commissioner of the people should die, his successor must be chosen from the group of cuarts which had elected the deceased; in order that this successor be considered as a legal commissioner, it will suffice that the fact be declared on a list that a substitute has been elected by a majority of the voters having taken part in the last election. 11. If any difficulty presents itself in the application of the above articles, recourse shall be made to the General Council which shall deliver a declaration of execution obligatory for all the parishes in general and for each in particular, saving recourse to the sovereign Prince. 12. After the establishment of the authorities of the Common and of the General Council, the consuls of each of the six parishes shall remit twenty-four duros to the respective members of the General Council; the latter will keep them in a fund for their expenses, of which they shall make a written report to the consuls, who will in turn make them hold a new deposit of twenty-four duros, on condition that in every case an appropriate receipt has been given. Moreover, the consuls shall have the obligation to hold at the disposal of the respective members of the General Council the cuestia of France, the gift and the cuestia of the Bishop, the salaries of the employees, and that which is customary in the known councils of each year. 13. To prepare and procure the best success in the practice of the procedures (visuras), the two consuls of the respective parishes shall be present at the court of first instance, together with the two councillors, in order to give the first judgment there. If there is an appeal the two consuls of the other parishes shall attend the court of second instance to hear and decide; if there is a third attempt at recourse, the General Council shall be present with its assessor; and in the light of what the latter may supply them, the Council will issue its decision. The secretary of protocol shall also be there. The writ shall be given in the first instance into the hands of the major or minor consul, and if these are absent or sick, of a person designated as their substitute; in the second and third instance, into the hand of the syndic or of his substitute. 14. The syndic shall have, as hitherto, the power of making appropriate decisions as representative of the General Council, but always observing the good usage of consulting the Council on the first occasion of applying such decisions in order to secure the approbation of the Council. 15. It is equally expedient, for the exact fulfillment of good usage that if some difficult and grave question arise in the Vale, the General Council should call in three or four individuals of each parish, from among those who have the most wealth and capacity, in order to advise jointly as to the best solution, as much to negotiate with the Co-Princes as to settle all other matters.16. The communal authorities and those of the General Council can be called to account by individuals before competent jurisdictions on the subject of debts contracted toward them as individuals without there being need for previous authorization; it is only in the case of debts contracted as authorities that the authorization of the syndic shall be necessary to call to account the consuls and the members of the General Council, and that of the General Council to call to account the syndies. The General Council and the syndies must, moreover, give the said authorization as soon as the claimant makes proof of default of payment. In case of the refusal of said authorization, recourse may be had to the sovereign Prince.