Título VIII. Disposiciones transitorias y finales

The specific law regulating the relations of the Legislative Branch with its personnel shall be issued within the thirty days following the installation of said Branch.

No municipal authority shall perform judicial functions, therefore within a time limit of not more than two years from the entry into force of this Constitution, the minor Trial Courts shall be separated from the municipalities of the country and the Judicial Branch shall appoint the specific authorities, regionalizing and designating judges where appropriate. Within that time limit, the laws and other provisions necessary for due compliance with this article shall be enacted.

Those who have obtained Guatemalan nationality, of origin or by naturalization, shall retain it with fullness of rights. The Congress of the Republic shall issue a law relating to nationality as soon as possible.

The Government of the Republic, organized in accordance with the Fundamental Statute of Government and its amendments, shall retain its functions until the person elected to the office of President of the Republic takes office.

The Fundamental Statute of Government contained in Decree-Law 24-82 dated 27 April 1982, 36-82 dated 9 June 1982, 87-83 dated 8 August 1983 and further amendments shall remain in force until the moment this Constitution enters into force.

On November 3, 1985, general elections shall be held for President and Vice President of the Republic, deputies to the Congress of the Republic and municipal corporations throughout the country, in accordance with the provisions of the specific Electoral Law issued by the Head of State for the holding of said general elections.

If applicable, a second election for President and Vice President of the Republic shall be held on December 8, 1985, subject to the same law.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal shall organize said elections and shall make the final certification of their results, proclaiming the elected citizens.

The National Constituent Assembly shall install in their offices the deputies declared elected by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on January 14, 1986.

The deputies elected to the Congress of the Republic shall hold preparatory sessions so that in the same act of assumption of their offices, the Board of Directors of the Congress of the Republic, composed in the manner established by this Constitution, shall also assume office.

Once the mandate to install in office the deputies elected to the Congress of the Republic has been fulfilled and the Congress has been organized, on January 14, 1986, the National Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Guatemala, elected on July 1, 1984, shall declare its functions terminated and its mandate exhausted on that same day, proceeding to dissolve. Prior to its dissolution, it shall examine its accounts and grant them its approval.

The Congress of the Republic, once installed in accordance with the preceding norms, is obligated to install in office the person declared elected as President of the Republic by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which it shall do in a solemn session to be held no later than 16:00 hours on January 14, 1986. In the same act, the Congress of the Republic shall install in office the person declared elected by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal as Vice President of the Republic.

In the preparatory sessions of the Congress of the Republic, it shall prepare and organize the necessary ceremonial.

The elected municipal corporations shall assume their offices and shall begin the period for which they were elected on January 15, 1986.

The Congress of the Republic shall issue a new Municipal Code, the Municipal Service Law, the Preliminary Regionalization Law and a Municipal Tax Code, adjusted to the constitutional precepts, no later than within a time limit of one year counted from the installation of Congress.

The magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and other public officials whose appointment corresponds to the Congress of the Republic shall, on this occasion, be appointed and shall assume their offices within the period from 15 January 1986 to 14 February of the same year. Their term shall end on the dates established in this Constitution and the Civil Service Law of the Judicial Branch.

Six months after the members of the Supreme Court of Justice have assumed their offices, in exercise of their legislative initiative, they shall send to the Congress of the Republic the draft law on the integration of the Judicial Branch.

Within the first year of this Constitution being in force, the President of the Republic, in exercise of his legislative initiative, shall send to the Congress of the Republic the bill on the Executive Branch.

From the beginning of the entry into force of the Constitution, the Government of the Republic may submit for the consideration of the Congress of the Republic the General Budget of Income and Expenditures of the State put into force by the previous government. If not modified, it shall continue in force during fiscal year 1986.

One percent of the General Budget of Ordinary Revenues of the State is allocated to literacy, to eradicate illiteracy of the economically active population, during the first three governments originating from this Constitution, which allocation shall be deducted, in such periods, from the percentage established in Article 91 of this Constitution.

The approval of literacy budgets and programs, the oversight and supervision of their development, shall be the responsibility of a National Literacy Committee composed of the public and private sectors, half plus one of its members shall be from the public sector. A Literacy Law shall be issued by the Congress of the Republic within the six months following the entry into force of this Constitution.

The promotion and economic development of the department of Petén are declared of national urgency, for its effective integration into the national economy. The Law shall determine the measures and activities aimed at such purposes.

The legal validity of the decree-laws issued by the Government of the Republic from March 23, 1982 is recognized, as well as that of all administrative and governmental acts carried out in accordance with the law from said date.

Political parties shall enjoy financing, as of the general elections of November 3, 1985, which shall be regulated by the Constitutional Electoral Law.

In the course of the year of its being in force, this Constitution shall be widely disseminated in the Quiché, Mam, Cakchiquel and Kekchí languages.

The Executive is empowered to carry out the steps aimed at resolving the situation of the rights of Guatemala with respect to Belize, in accordance with the national interests. Any definitive agreement shall be submitted by the Congress of the Republic to the procedure of popular consultation provided for in Article 173 of the Constitution.

The Government of Guatemala shall promote social, economic and cultural relations with the population of Belize.

For purposes of nationality, Belizeans by origin shall be subject to the regime that this Constitution establishes for natives of the Central American countries.

The headings preceding the articles of this Constitution have no interpretative validity and may not be cited with respect to the content and scope of the constitutional norms.

This Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala shall enter into force on 14 January 1986 upon the installation of the Congress of the Republic and shall not lose its validity and force notwithstanding any temporary interruption arising from situations of force.

Excepted from the date of entry into force are this article and Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17 and 20 of the transitory and final provisions of this Constitution, which shall enter into force on 1 June 1985.

All Constitutions of the Republic of Guatemala and constitutional reforms decreed prior to the present one are repealed, as well as any laws and provisions that may have had the same effects.

For the adaptation of the Congress of the Republic to the constitutional reforms approved on November 17, 1993, the following procedure shall be followed:

a)Once the present constitutional reforms are in force, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal shall call elections for deputies to the Congress of the Republic, which shall be held within a time limit of not less than one hundred twenty days after being called.

b)The deputies who are elected shall take office thirty days after the election has been held, the date on which the term and functions of the deputies to the Congress of the Republic installed on January 15, 1991 shall end.

c)The Congress of the Republic installed in accordance with subparagraphs a) and b) of the present article shall conclude its functions on January 14, 1996. On that same day the deputies elected in the 1995 general elections shall take office.

For the adaptation of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the other tribunals referred to in Article 217 of this Constitution, of the Comptroller General of Accounts and of the Public Prosecutor's Office to the approved constitutional reforms, the procedure shall be as follows:

a)The Congress of the Republic installed in accordance with the preceding transitional article shall convene, within the three days following its installation, the Nominating Commissions provided for in Articles 215, 217 and 233 of this Constitution, so that within a time limit of not more than fifteen days they proceed to make the corresponding nominations.

b)The Congress of the Republic installed in accordance with the preceding transitional article shall elect the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the other tribunals referred to in Article 217 of this Constitution and the Comptroller General of Accounts within the thirty days following the installation of the new Congress, on which date those elected shall take office and on which the terms and functions of the magistrates and comptroller whom they are to replace shall end.

c)For the purposes of the preceding provisions, Congress shall meet in extraordinary sessions if necessary.

d)The President of the Republic shall appoint the Attorney General within the thirty days following the entry into force of these reforms, on which date he shall take office and on which the term and functions of the attorney whom he will replace shall end.

e)The President of the Republic shall appoint the Prosecutor General of the Republic within the thirty days following the entry into force of these reforms, on which date he shall take office.

f)The Attorney General shall continue to hold the office of Head of the Public Prosecutor's Office until the Prosecutor General takes office.

The provisions contained in Articles 23 and 24 of the Sole Chapter of Title VIII of this Constitution are of a special character and prevail over any others of a general character.

No later than, within the time limit of eighteen months from the date of the entry into force of the present reforms, the Executive Branch, in order to modernize and make more efficient the public administration, in exercise of its legislative initiative, shall send to the Congress of the Republic a bill containing the Law of the Executive Branch.

In order that the elections of the municipal governments be held on the same date, jointly with the presidential and deputy elections, in those municipalities whose municipal governments took office in June 1993 for a five-year period, the next elections shall be for a period that shall conclude on January 15, 2000.

For such purpose the Supreme Electoral Tribunal shall take the pertinent measures.