Page:Constitution of the Cherokee Nation 1999.pdf/4

 shall be elected.

Section 3. The Council shall consist of seventeen (17) members, who are citizens of the Cherokee Nation. Any citizen of the Cherokee Nation at least twenty-five (25) years of age on that date of the election may be a candidate for the Council. Each Council member shall be elected in the general election for a term of four (4) years and until his or her successor is duly elected and installed. All Council members shall be limited to two (2) consecutive elected terms on the Council. All Council members having served two consecutive terms must sit out one (1) term before seeking any seat on the Council.

The Council shall establish representative districts which shall be within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. Fifteen of these seats shall be apportioned to afford a reasonably equal division of citizenship among the districts, and the remaining two shall be elected at-large by those registered voters residing outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation voting at-large in accordance with this section.

The Council members representing districts within the boundaries must be domiciled within their district. The Council shall, within sixty (60) days of this Constitution taking effect, select the two at-large Council members to serve until the next regularly scheduled election.

All registered voters residing outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, may, at the time of the first election to fill at-large Council seats, choose to continue to be registered to vote in the district in which they were previously registered. In the absence of making that choice, they shall be registered to vote at-large. Notwithstanding the above, citizens under the age of twenty-five (25) who reside outside the boundaries and who have not previously registered to vote, may make a single choice to register to vote in the district of their choice at the time of their first registration, failing which their registration shall be to vote at-large. All citizens age twenty-five (25) or older residing outside the boundaries not registered to vote at the time of the first election to fill at-large Council seats may only register to vote at-large. Citizens residing outside the boundaries who relocate within a district shall be subject to the requirements to vote in that district. Those residing within the boundaries must vote within the district of their residence.

The Council shall, within one year of this Constitution taking effect, establish a system of staggered terms for all seats on the Council to be organized into elections every two years.

Section 4. There shall be at least one regular session of the Council in the calendar year which shall convene on the second Monday in each January or at such other date as the Council shall determine. No business shall be conducted by the Council unless at least two-thirds (2/3) of members thereof regularly qualified shall be in attendance, which number shall constitute a quorum. The session may not exceed a maximum of thirty (30) calendar days for pay purposes.

Section 5. Special meetings of the Council may be called: (A) by the Principal Chief, (B) by the Deputy Principal Chief when he or she has the full powers of the Principal Chief as elsewhere defined, (C) upon written request of fifty-one percent (51%) of the members of the Council, or (D) upon the written request of ten percent (10%) of the number of registered voters who voted in the last general election of the Cherokee Nation. The purposes of said meeting shall be stated in a notice