The legislative power is exerted by a bicameral Parliament made up of the national people’s Assembly and the Council of Nation. The Constitution stipulates in this effect “to be adopted, any bill or law proposal should be debated successively by the national people’s Assembly and by the Council of Nation”.

 The parliament legislates in the fields listed mainly by:

     Article 122 of the Constitution – for matters coming under ordinary laws,

     Article 123 of the Constitution – for matters coming under organic laws.

    The Head of Government and the deputies have the right to initiate laws (art. 119 of the Constitution). The law is examined and voted by the Assembly according to procedures determined by the Constitution and the organic texts which rule the national people’s Assembly:

 a) The tabling

   The elaboration process of the law starts with the tabling on the bureau of the national people’s Assembly of bills proposed by the Government or law proposals presented by the deputies. The law proposals are subject to admissibility conditions related to:

      the number of deputies required for the tabling of these initiatives,

their financial effect on the resources or the public expenses,

 other conditions fixed by law and the rules of procedure.

    The bill or the law proposal declared admissible, tabled on the bureau of the national people’s Assembly, is recorded by the services of the Assembly’s general secretariat, codified, printed and distributed to the whole of deputies. The Speaker of the national people’s Assembly concurrently sends it for an examination at bottom to one of the 12 standing committees which competence fits the object of the tabled text. The mission of that committee is to examine the text and draw up a report called preliminary.

 b) The examination of the text by the competent committee

   The examination of the text by the competent committee takes place in two stages:

 1.–   A first stage devoted to the detailed examination of the bill or the law proposal which started immediately after its submission to the competent committee by the Speaker of the national people’s Assembly. The proceedings of the committee generally start with the hearing to the Government representative, when the discussed text is a bill, or to the authors’ delegate, when it is question of a law proposal. Moreover, the committee may plan any hearing of experts or personalities likely to be provided with the clarifications necessary to the examination of the submitted text.

 After the discussion, the preliminary report of the committee is elaborated and submitted to its members for adoption. Such procedure closes up the first examining stage of the text to the competent committee. The president of this committee transmits the preliminary report to the bureau of the Assembly. It is printed, communicated to the Government and distributed to the whole of the deputies.

 It is put on the agenda of the session fixed by the bureau together with the Government after the conference of the presidents.

The general debate starts up the time allowed for amendments. The deputies have 24 hours in hand reckoning from the opening of the general debate to bring in their written amendments in pursuance of the procedures fixed in the rules of procedure. Such delay is nonetheless non-invocable to the amendments presented by the Government and the competent committee. They may be brought in at any time before the vote of the article to which they refer to.

 The possibility to present, in plenary session, orally an amendment, is also offered to the Government, to the bureau of the competent committee and when the text under discussion is a law proposal, to the delegate of the authors of such initiative.

 When the committee does not table its report within the two months following the beginning of the submission of the text to be examined, the Government may require, upon approval from the bureau of the Assembly, to put it on the agenda.(Article 26 of the organic law n° 99/02 of march 8^th, 1999.)

2. – The second examination stage within the committee occurs after the bringing in of amendments. The Speaker of the Assembly transmits to the competent committee the amendments declared as admissible by the bureau and those which the Government may bring in. The committee examines and gives a decision on the amendments after, if necessary, the hearing of the “authors’ delegate” in charge of presenting and defending the amendment before the committee and in plenary session. Moreover, the committee may, during this second examining phase, bring in other amendments. The adoption of the complementary report closes up the examination of the text submitted to the committee. The complementary report is printed, distributed to all the deputies and communicated to the Government.

 c) Debating the text in plenary session

The Organic law which fixes the functioning and the organization of the National People’s Assembly and the Council of Nation and the rules of procedure of the Assembly stipulate three procedures to debate the texts submitted to the Assembly:

the voting procedure with general debate,

the voting procedure with restricted debate

 the voting procedure without debate.

The ordinary procedure to examine bills or law proposals, in conformity with article 32 of the organic law fixing the organization and the functioning of the National People’s Assembly and the Council of Nation, is that of with general debate. Such procedure is structured as follows:

 1°- To start the debate by:
 hearing to the Government representative, who generally presents an expose on the objectives and the content of the bill tabled by the Government, or to that of the authors’ delegate when the text under discussion is a law proposal, followed by the presentation of the competent committee report by the rapporteur.

 2°- To organize the general debate after the writing down the names of the deputies who would like to take part in the debate on a list of orators. The debate bears, in conformity with the organic law fixing the organization and the functioning of the National People’s Assembly and the Council of Nation, on the whole text.

 3°- At the end of the debate, unless the decision to postpone it, the National People’s Assembly proceeds to vote the text according to the modalities and the order fixed by articles 35 and 36 of the above-mentioned Organic Law.

Concerning the restricted voting procedures, the vote with restricted debate and the vote without debate are implemented according the modalities fixed by the Organic Law and the Rule of Procedure of the Assembly. The vote without debate is mainly used in matters of approving ordinances decided by the President of the Republic during the inter-sessions, in pursuance of paragraphs 1 to 3 of article 124 of the Constitution.

 d) Transmitting the text
    voted by the national people’s Assembly to the Council of Nation. The Speaker of the Assembly transmits, within a delay of 10 days, any text voted by the national people’s Assembly to the Council of Nation.

 The Government is informed of such transmission.

 e) The committee with parity of representation

The Council of Nation deliberates the text voted by the National People’s Assembly. In case of rejection by the first House of one or more provisions of the text submitted or of the text as a whole, the head of Government, and after only one reading for each House, convenes the committee with parity of representation entrusted with proposing a text on the provisions which would not get the majority of ¾ required for the adoption of texts by the Council of Nation. The text elaborated by the committee with equal representation is submitted by the Head of Government for approval of successively the National People’s Assembly then the Council of Nation. If both chambers adopt the text, it is transmitted to the President of the Republic to be promulgated. On the contrary, the Head of Government proceeds to its withdrawal.

 f) The promulgation

The laws adopted by the Parliament are transmitted by the President of the Council of Nation to the President of the Republic to be promulgated. The Speaker of the Assembly and the Head of Government are informed of such transmission. The President of the Republic promulgates the law within 30 days except for the cases when a second reading is requested or when the Constitutional Council is referred to.