SECTION II. THE EXECUTIVE POWER CHAPTER I. ITS NATURE AND DURATION ART. 74. The executive power of the nation shall be vested in a citizen with the title of "President of the Argentine Nation." ART. 75. In case of illness, absence from the capital, death, resignation, or removal of the President, the executive power shall be exercised by the Vice-President of the nation. In case of removal, death, resignation, or incapacity of both the President and Vice-President of the nation, Congress shall determine what public officer shall act as President until the disability is removed or a new President is elected." ART. 76. To be elected President or Vice-President of the nation, one must have been born in the Argentine Territory, or if born in a foreign country, be the son of a native citizen; must belong to the Roman Catholic apostolic church; and must have all the other qualifications required to be a senator. ART. 77. The President and the Vice-President shall hold their offices for a term of six years, but neither shall be re-elected until after an intermission of one term. ART. 78. The President of the nation shall cease to exercise his powers on the same day on which his term of six years expires; and no event of any kind which may have interrupted such term may be alleged as a reason for completing it afterward. ART. 79. The President and Vice-President shall receive for their services a compensation, to be paid from the national treasury, the amount of which shall not be changed during their terms of office. During said period they shall not exercise any other office or receive any other emolument, either national or provincial. 6 By the law of September 19, 1868, the order of succession to the presidency is fixed as follows: (1) President pro tempore of the Senate; (2) President of the House of Deputies; (3) President of the Supreme Court. ART. 80. On entering upon the discharge of their duties, the President and the Vice-President shall take an oath, which shall be administered to them by the president of the Senate (the first time by the president of the Constitutional Convention), Congress being in session, in the following terms: I, do swear, before God our Lord and these Holy Gospels to discharge loyally and patriotically the office of President (or Vice-President) of the nation, and faithfully to observe and to cause others to observe the constitution of the Argentine Nation. fail to do so, may God and the nation require it of me. Should I CHAPTER II. MANNER AND TIME OF ELECTING THE PRESIDENT AND VICEPRESIDENT OF THE NATION ART. 81. The election of the President and Vice-President of the nation shall be made in the following manner: The capital and each one of the provinces shall appoint, by direct vote, an electoral college, consisting of twice as many members as the number of senators and deputies constituting their respective representation in Congress, who shall have the same qualifications, and shall be elected in the same manner, as is provided for the election of deputies. Deputies, senators, and officials receiving pay from the federal government shall be disqualified from acting as electors. Four months before the expiration of the presidential term, the electors chosen by the capital shall meet in the capital, and those chosen by the provinces in their respective capitals, and shall proceed to elect by signed ballots the President and Vice-President of the nation, expressing in one ballot the choice for President and in another distinct ballot the choice for Vice-President. Two lists shall be made of all the persons named for President and two others of those named for Vice-President, with the number of votes cast in favor of each of them. These lists shall be signed by the electors and sent by them sealed, two (one of each kind) to the president of the provin cial legislature, and in the case of the capital to the president of the municipality-to be filed and kept, with their seals unbroken, in their respective archives-and the other two to the president of the Senate (for the first election, to the president of the Constitutional Convention). ART. 82. The president of the Senate (for the first election, the president of the Constitutional Convention), having all the lists in his possession, shall open them in the presence of the two houses. Four members of Congress, selected by lot, shall, together with the secretaries, immediately proceed to count and announce the votes cast for each candidate for President and Vice-President of the nation. Those receiving in each case an absolute majority of all the votes shall be immediately proclaimed President and Vice-President. ART. 83. In case the vote is divided and no absolute majority can be obtained, Congress shall elect one of the two persons who shall have obtained the greatest number of votes. If the highest votes obtained prove to be in favor of more than two persons, Congress shall make its choice from among all of them. If the highest vote obtained proves to be in favor of only one person, and two or more persons are favored with the next largest vote, the choice of Congress shall be made from among all those who obtained the first and second highest votes. ART. 84. This choice shall be made by an absolute majority of votes, the votes to be verbal. If such majority is not obtained on the first ballot, a second vote shall be taken, restricting the vote to the two persons who shall have obtained the greatest number of votes on the first ballot. If the vote is equally divided, the balloting shall be repeated, but if it again results in an equal division, the president of the Senate (for the first election the president of the Constitutional Convention) shall decide by his vote. The counting of the votes and the verifying of these elections shall not be made without the presence of three-fourths of all the members of Congress. ART. 85. The election of the President and Vice-President of the nation shall be concluded in a single sitting of Congress, and the result thereof, as well as the journal of the electoral proceedings, shall be published immediately through the newspapers. CHAPTER III. POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE ART. 86. The President of the nation shall have the following powers: 1) He shall be the chief magistrate of the nation, and shall have in his charge the general administration of the country. 2) He may issue the instructions and regulations necessary for the execution of the laws of the nation, taking care that the spirit of such laws be not changed by exceptions introduced through the said regulations. 3) He shall be the chief local authority of the capital of the nation. 4) He shall assist, in the manner provided by the constitution, in making the laws, shall approve them, and shall cause them to be promulgated. 5) He shall appoint, with the advice of the Senate, the judges of the Supreme Court and of all other inferior federal courts. 6) He may grant pardons or commute punishments in cases of offenses subject to federal jurisdiction, upon report of the proper court, except in cases of impeachment by the House of Deputies. 7) He may place officials on the retired list with pay, and grant leaves of absence, and the enjoyment of pensions to widows and orphans, in accordance with the laws of the nation. 8) He shall exercise the right of national ecclesiastical patronage by presenting bishops for the cathedral churches, selected from three names proposed to him by the Senate. 9) He shall, with the advice of the Supreme Court, grant or refuse passage to decrees of the councils, bulls, briefs, and rescripts of the Supreme Pontiff of Rome; but said grant or refusal shall be made by law, whenever such ecclesiastical enactments contain provisions of a general or permanent character. 10) He shall appoint and remove, with the advice of the Senate, ministers plenipotentiary and chargés d'affaires, and by himself alone, without senatorial action, the ministers of state, officials of the departments, consular agents, and all the government employees whose appointment is not otherwise provided for by this constitution. II) He shall open the annual sessions of Congress, both houses assembling for that purpose in the hall of the Senate; on this occasion he shall furnish information as to the condition of the nation, of the reforms promised by the constitution, and shall recommend to the consideration of the houses such measures as he may deem necessary and expedient. 12) He may extend the regular session of Congress, or convene it in extraordinary session, when some grave interest of order or progress may require it. 13) He shall cause the revenue of the nation to be collected, and shall decree the disbursement thereof in accordance with the law or budgets of national expenses. 14) He shall conclude and sign treaties of peace, of commerce, of navigation, of alliance, of boundaries, and of neutrality, as well as concordats and all other negotiations required for the maintenance of friendly relations with foreign powers; he shall receive their ministers and admit their consuls. 15) He shall be the commander-in-chief of all the land and naval forces of the nation. 16) He shall appoint all the military officers of the nation, with the consent of the Senate when the position to be filled, or the rank to be given, is that of a superior officer in either |