Page:British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 144 (1952).djvu/366



222. Municipal Districts shall be governed in the manner established by law, which shall recognise the right of municipalities to adopt their own municipal constitution in accordance with this Constitution.

The Municipal organisation shall be democratic and shali respond in a simple and efficacious manner to the essentially administrative character of the local government.

223. Municipalities can adopt their own municipal constitution in accordance with the following procedure, which shall be regulated by law. The Municipal Council or Commission, on petition of 10 per cent. of the voters of the Municipality and with the favourable vote of two-thirds of its members, shall consult the electorate of the Municipality, through the medium of the corresponding electoral bodies, as to whether it desires to elect a Commission of 15 members to prepare a municipal constitution.

The names of the candidates to form part of the Commission shall be placed on the respective ballots, and if the majority of the electors votes favourably on the question raised, the 15 candidates who receive the highest vote, in accordance with the system of proportional representation, shall be elected to form the Commission. The latter shall draw up the municipal constitution and submit it for the approval of the voters of the Municipality not less than 30 days after it has been completed and distributed, and not more than one year after the Commission is elected.

Municipalities shall adopt one of these systems of government: that of a commission; that of a municipal council and manager; and that of a Mayor and municipal council.

224. In the system of government by commission, the number of commissioners, including among them the mayor as presiding officer, shall be five in municipalities having up to 20,000 inhabitants; seven in those having from 20,000 to 100,000; and nine in those of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

All commissioners shall be directly elected by the people, for a period of 4 years. Each commissioner shall be the head of a department of the municipal administration, for which he shall be responsible, and he shall be charged with fulfilling, and seeing to the fulfilment, with respect to his department, of the resolutions adopted by the commission. The requisites