Page:British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 144 (1952).djvu/365

 (b) A referendum shall be required in the contracting of loans, issuance of bonds and other operations of mobilisation of municipal credit which by their amount compel the Municipality effecting them to create new taxes to cover payment of the amortizations or payments of said contracts.

(c) The right of initiative is granted to a percentage that will be fixed by law, of the electorate of the Municipality, to propose resolutions to the Municipal Council or the Commission. If these latter reject the initiative or fail to decide on it, it must be submitted to popular vote by means of a referendum, in the manner determined by law.

(d) Recall of local government officers can be requested by a percentage of the electorate of the Municipality, in the manner determined by law.

(e) What is requested of municipal authorities and bodies shall be considered decided in the negative when the petition or claim is not favourably decided within the period fixed by law. Everything relative to the impugnation of such tacit denials, and the responsibility of those liable for the delay, shall also be regulated by law.

Penalties for unjustified delay in the handling of petitions which inhabitants of a Municipal District present to the municipal authorities and bodies shall be fixed by law.

220. The penal liability incurred by mayors, members of the Municipal Council or of the Commission and other municipal authorities shall be enforceable before the courts, either on their own initiative, at the instance of the Public Prosecutor, or by private action. This private action shall be by the people and can be utilised by not less than 25 residents of the Municipal District, without furnishing surety, and without prejudice to any liability that is proper because of false or calumnious accusations.

221. Responsibility for municipal resolutions shall rest upon those who vote in favour of them and those who, although not on official leave of absence at the time, did not attend the meeting at which they were approved, and do not within the two following meetings, put themselves on record as opposed to the resolution. Such action shall in no case affect the efficacy of definitively adopted resolutions.