constituteproject.org PDF generated: 17 Jan 2014, 16:43 Title III Of the Legislative Power Article 45 The legislative power belongs to the Parliament. Article 46 The Parliament is composed of two (2) representative Assemblies: the National Assembly and the Senate. Article 47 The Deputies to the National Assembly are elected for five (5) years by direct suffrage. The Senators are elected for six (6) years by indirect suffrage. They assure the representation of the territorial collectivities of the Republic. The Mauritanians resident abroad are represented in the Senate. The Senators are renewed by thirds (1/3) every two (2) years. All Mauritanian citizens enjoying their civil and political rights [and] at least twenty-five (25) years old are eligible to be [a] Deputy and at least thirty-five (35) years old [are eligible] to be a Senator. Article 48 An organic law establishes the conditions for the election of the members of Parliament, their number, their indemnity, the conditions of eligibility, [and] the regime of the ineligibilities and of the incompatibilities. It also establishes the conditions in which the persons named to assure the replacement of the Deputies or the Senators in the case of vacancy of a seat, are elected [,] until the general or partial renewal of the Assembly to which they belong. Article 49 The Constitutional Council decides in the case of dispute [contestation] concerning the regularity of the election of the parliamentarians or concerning their eligibility. Article 50 No member of the Parliament may be prosecuted, pursued, arrested, detained or judged because of the opinions or the votes emitted by him during the exercise of his functions. No member of the Parliament, during the sessions, may be prosecuted or arrested in [a] criminal or [a] correctional matter without the authorization of the Assembly to which he belongs except in case of flagrante delicto. No member of the Parliament may be arrested, outside [a] session, except with the authorization of the Bureau of the Assembly to which he belongs, except in case of flagrante delicto, of authorized prosecution or of definitive condemnation. The detention or the prosecution of a member of the Parliament is suspended if the Assembly to which he belongs requires it. Mauritania 1991 (rev. 2012) Page 10