Page:Armenia, Travels and Studies, Vol. 2.djvu/591



Article 69.—The National Political and Religious Assemblies, with the Chairmen of different Councils, hold a sitting once every two years, in the first part of the month of February, to prepare the list of the deputies to be elected by the quarters of Constantinople and by the provinces, and with the aid of the general census kept in the Bureau of the Patriarchate they decide the number of deputies to be elected by each quarter or by each province, taking as their basis for the quarters in Constantinople the number of the electors, and for the provinces the number of the inhabitants. The number of deputies thus decided upon should be communicated by the Patriarch to each quarter or province.

The office of the deputies lasts ten years, and once in two years the fifth part of the deputies elected by the quarters of Constantinople and by the provinces is changed; the election of this fifth part should take place once in two years by the quarters or by the provinces alternately.

The turn of this alternation should be decided by lot during the first eight years, on condition that in case the number of electors in a quarter or the number of the population in a province is diminished or increased, the number of the deputies to be elected by the quarter or the province in question should be diminished or increased proportionately.

Those who are to take the places of the deputies deceased or resigned should be elected every year two months before the beginning of a new year.

The deputies of the quarters should be elected by the inhabitants of Constantinople. But the deputies of the provinces should be elected by the General Assembly of each province.

Article 70.—The deputies of the quarters or of the provinces need not necessarily be the inhabitants of the same quarter or of the same province, provided they live in Constantinople, are well acquainted with the national affairs of the quarter or of the province they represent, and have, by their love for their nation, by their honesty and justice, deserved the esteem and confidence of their electors.

The national deputies are not regarded in the General Assembly as the deputies of any particular locality, but as the deputies of the nation, all enjoying the same equal rights.

Article 71.—The Patriarch sends a communication to every quarter in Constantinople, in the month of February, in regard to the one-fifth of the deputies to be elected by them every two years, giving notice of the number of the deputies to be elected by each one, and reminding them of the qualifications of electors and candidates.

On receiving this communication, the Councils in the quarters undertake the election of the deputies, but during the process of the election the preacher of the quarter, or in his absence the head of the priests, will preside, and from three to six honourable inhabitants of the place are added to the number of the Council.

The Electoral Council thus formed ascertains the number of those who have the right of election in their quarter, prepares in alphabetical order a