Page 209 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes Convicts and persons declared undischarged bankrupts and others deprived of their civil rights are
not eligible for the membership of either house. Besides, members of the boards of nationalised
industries, directors of companies which receive state aid or hold Government contracts, and persons
who hold any office (paid) on behalf of a member-state of the Community or any foreign power or an
international organisation are not eligible for membership.

For the upper house the minimum age for being elected is 35 years. It is required that the
candidates must have completed their military service and they must be French citizens
of at least 10 years’ standing.

The total membership of the Senate has been fixed. It is 330 out of which 304 represent metropolitan
France, 15 represent Overseas Departments and overseas Territories and 12 represent Frenchmen living
abroad. The metropolitan seats are distributed among the ‘departments’ each having 1 seat for the first
150,000 inhabitants and additional ones for each additional 250,000 or fraction thereof. Each electoral
college is composed of (1) local parliamentary deputies, (2) members of the departmental councils, and
(3) representatives of the municipalities according to the size of various municipal councils. All the
members of the electoral colleges number about 115,000 in all. About 400 communes with over 9,000
inhabitants choose their delegates by proportional representation, while others with less than 37,000
inhabitants choose their delegates by absolute majority allowing three ballots to attain this.
It is laid down in the Constitution that the matters relating to the qualifications, emoluments, terms,
conditions of incompatibility etc. of the members of Parliament shall be determined by Organic Laws.
Thus an organic law was passed to abolish the ‘notorious’ system of proportional representation in
the elections of National Assembly and substituted in its place the single-member constituency system
with a second ballot in case no candidate succeeds in obtaining absolute majority of the votes polled
at the first ballot. It shall be determined by the organic law as to what shall be the conditions governing
the replacement of deputies of the National Assembly and members of the Senate who are either
appointed as ministers or resign their seats. A very innovatory arrangement in this regard is the
election of the alternates or ‘substitutes’, that is ‘dummy’ candidates, who take seat in the Parliament
when a member dies or resigns his seat particularly on the being a minister.
Like the term of the British House of Commons, the National Assembly is elected by the people for a
period of 5 years. However, it may be dissolved earlier by the President. It is required that the President
must seek the opinions of the Prime Minister and the presiding officers of the two Houses before
promulgating his decree, though the matter lies in his discretion. The Senate, like its American
counterpart, is a permanent body with the difference that while the members of the latter are indirectly
elected for a period of 6 years, 1/3 retiring every second year, the members of the former are elected
by an electoral college for a period of 6 years, 1/2 retiring every third year. According to a law made
in 2003, the Senators are to be elected for a term of 6 years, with 1/2 seats renewable after every three
years and to be allocated through a combination of majority voting and proportional representation.
From 2010 the number of the Senators would be increased to 346 and the minimum age of eligible
candidates to the Senate would be reduced from 35 to 30 years.
Sessions and Presiding Officers: The Constitution lays down that the Parliament shall convene by
right in two ordinary sessions in a year. The first session begins on the first Tuesday of October and
lasts till the third Friday of December. That is, it lasts for nearly 74 days and is mainly concerned with
the passing of the budget. The second session begins on the last Tuesday of April and cannot continue
for more than three months. It is concerned mainly with the passing of ordinary legislative matters.
It is understandable that the President has no right to convene the ordinary session of the Parliament,
for it is held as a matter of right. However, he may call an extra-ordinary session of the Parliament at
any time to consider ‘urgent’ business. It shall usually be done on the advice of the Prime Minister,
because the decree issued by the President in this regard must be countersigned by the Prime Minister.
Parliament may itself hold its extraordinary session by right.

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