constituteproject.org PDF generated: 18 Apr 2016, 15:22 Section 2: Of Sovereignty • Secret ballot • Referenda • Restrictions on voting • Claim of universal suffrage Article 5 National sovereignty belongs to the people. All power emanates from the people who exercise it directly by way of referendum or [by] elections and indirectly by their representatives. No fraction of the people or any individual may arrogate its exercise. The law establishes the conditions of organization of the elections and of the referendum. Suffrage is universal, equal and secret. It is direct or indirect. Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 72, 102 and 106 of this Constitution, all Congolese of both sexes, of eighteen years of age [at least], and enjoying their civil and political rights are electors and eligible, under the conditions determined by the law. • Restrictions on political parties • Right to form political parties Article 6 Political pluralism is recognized in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All Congolese enjoying their civil and political rights have the right of creating a political party or to affiliate themselves to a political party of their choice. The political parties participate in the expression of suffrage, in the reinforcement of the national conscience and of the civic education. They form and exercise their activities freely with respect for the law, for public order and for morality. The political parties are held to the respect for the principles of pluralist democracy, of national unity and of national sovereignty. • Campaign financing • Preferred political parties The political parties may receive from the State public funds designated to finance their electoral campaigns or their activities, under the conditions defined by the law. Article 7 No one may institute, in any form that may be, a sole party on all or part of the national territory. The institution of a sole party constitutes an impresciptible infraction of high treason punishable by the law. Article 8 Political opposition is recognized in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rights connected to its existence, to its activities and to its struggle for the democratic conquest of power are sacred. They may not be subject to limits other than those imposed on all political parties and activities by this Constitution and the law. An organic law establishes the status of the political opposition. • Ownership of natural resources Article 9 The State exercises a permanent sovereignty notably over the soil, the subsoil, the waters and the forests, over the air, river, lakes and maritime spaces of the Congo as well as over the Congolese territorial sea and over the continental shelf. Congo (Democratic Republic of the) 2005 (rev. 2011) Page 6