Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/95

 66 The court to which belongs the execution of unappealable decisions shall order their publication in the official bulletin of the province in which the offense shall have been committed, and shall send a copy of that newspaper to the central board.

No attention shall be paid by the minister of the colonies (nor shall any report thereon be made by the court or the council of state) to any application for pardon on account of electoral offenses, unless it shall previously appear that the petitioners have served at least one-half of the time for which they were sentenced to personal penalties, and have paid the full amount of the fines and costs. The authorities and members of corporations, whatever their status may be, who shall violate this provision by causing the petition for pardon to be laid before the King for decision, shall incur the responsibility provided in article 369 of the penal code.

The Government shall notify the central census board whenever a pardon is granted.

The punishment for infractions shall belong:

(1) To the presidents of the function or session in which they are committed.

(2) To the municipal or provincial census boards in which they are connected, respectively; with the acts of which said boards or their presidents are to take cognizance.

The municipal boards shall not, however, order any punishment in the case of superior boards, but if they understand that the provincial board has committed any infraction, they shall immediately notify the central board, that it may reach a proper decision in the matter.

When the judges fail to send to the census boards the documents which are necessary for the preparation or correction of the census, according to the regulations, said boards shall so inform the presiding judge of the proper superior court, that he may inflict the punishment, and shall send a report thereof to the central board.

(3) To the central board, the rest.

The imposition of fines shall take place in pursuance of a written decision in which the grounds therefor shall be stated. Those imposed in pursuance of the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article or by the municipal board may be appealed from before the provincial board within two days following the notification, which board shall confine itself to affirming or annulling the decision.

The rescissory decisions of the provincial board and those of that board in the exercise of its own powers may be appealed from within the same term to the central board, which may increase, diminish, and approve, or remit the fine within the limit of its powers.

Presidents of electoral colleges or of boards for counting votes, muncipal boards and the presidents thereof, shall not impose a fine exceeding 100 pesetas (francs).

Presidents of provincial boards, and those boards, may impose a fine to the amount of 500 pesetas.

The central board and its president may impose a fine to the amount of 1,000 pesetas.

The payment of these fines shall be made in special paper which the department of public finance shall issue for the purpose and shall deliver on account to the provincial deputations, collecting thereon a duty of 20 per cent of its value. The remainder of its value shall be paid into the proper provincial treasury.

If, six days after the decision shall have been pronounced, the fine shall not have been paid, compulsion shall be used for its collection.

In case the person fined is insolvent, he shall suffer imprisonment at the rate of one day for each 5 pesetas of the fine, but this term shall not exceed 10 days when the fine shall have been imposed by the municipal board, its president, or the president of the bureau; it shall not exceed 20 days if the fine shall have been imposed by the provincial board, its president, or by the boards for counting votes, and it shall not exceed 30 days if the fine shall have been imposed by the central board or its president.

First. Within the three days following the publication of this law in the gazettes of Havana and Puerto Rico, a board shall be formed in each one of the capitals of the island, which shall be called the insular board for the electoral census. It shall be composed of the Governor-General, who shall be its president; of the governmental divisions of the superior courts of Havana and Puerto Rico, respectively; of two members, chosen by the Governor-General from among the most influential residents, to represent in the board the political parties of the island, and of the secretary of the general government, the latter to have the right of discussion, but no vote, and he shall perform the duties of secretary. Moreover, the civil governor of Havana shall be a member of the insular board for the electoral census of the Island of Cuba.

The powers of these boards shall be:

(1) To inspect and direct all services connected with the preparation and preservation of the census.