DOCUMENTS.

DOCUMENT A.

CHAPTER I.

LAW OF ELECTIONS.*

ARTICLE 1. The election of the Representatives, who are to complete the extraordinary and constituent representation, shall be direct.

2. Every free man, a native of the country, or one admitted to the privileges of a denizen thereof, from the age of 20 years, or previously if he shall have been emancipated, shall be qualified to elect.

3. Every citizen above 25 years, who possesses a real estate, or property acquired by industry, may be elected.

4. The city shall elect four deputies.

* The powers which by this law are given to the members of the municipality, or town-council, are similar to those of the Justices of Peace, established latterly in districts where the institution of town-councils has fallen entirely into disuse.

5. The elections of the city shall take place in eight assemblies.

6. The assemblies shall be held in the parishes Catedral, Colegio, San Nicolas, Socorro, Piedad, Monserrat, Concepcion, and San Telmo.

7. A member of the municipality shall open each assembly.

8. The Alcaldes of Wards, (Alcaldes de Barrio,) and their deputies, are required to assist at the opening of the assemblies, and to invite thereto, each from his respective district, all the individuals qualified to elect.

9. The first act of the assemblies, subsequent to the opening, shall be the nomination, by a plurality of the votes present, of a President and four Scrutineers.

10. The President elect, and the four Scrutineers, shall take an oath to fulfil the duties of their office, in presence of the member of the municipality; who, after installing them in their situations, shall cease from his functions.

11. The President, and the four Scrutineers, shall form the Board of the electoral assembly.

12. The powers of the Board consist in excluding all persons who are not qualified to elect, in conformity with the second article; in declaring the invalidity of the votes given for persons who are not eligible by the enactment of the third article; and in observing the following:

13. The votes shall be verbal, and given by the voters themselves.

14. Two of the Scrutineers must keep, each of them separately, a register, in which shall be written the Christian name, surname, and place of abode of the voter, and only the Christian name and surname of the persons for whom he votes.

15. In each assembly of the city, votes shall be given for the twelve representatives.

16. The voting shall commence at ten in the morning, and finish at four in the afternoon.

17. From four till five, the Board of each assembly and the individuals composing that assembly who choose to be present, shall make their respective scrutiny, note it at the bottom of the register, and sign it.

18. The difference which may exist between the two registers shall be adjusted by the President and the other two Scrutineers.

19. From five till six, the Presidents of the assemblies, with a Scrutineer from each of them, shall repair to the principal hall, where they shall form the Central Board, at which the Alcalde, who superintends the first voting, will preside, and the Secretary of the town-council perform the legal

acts.

20. The Central Board shall examine the result of the eight scrutinies, and proclaim those to be elected who obtain the plurality of suffrages;

and, in case of equality, it shall decide, also by a plurality of the individuals who form it and the minute of these proceedings being signed, the Board shall break up.

21. The Alcalde, who superintends the first voting, shall cause two attestations of the minute of proceedings to be taken: one of which shall be deposited in the archives of the town-council; with the other he shall make his report to the Government and the registers and original minute of proceedings he shall send to the office of the Junta of Representatives.

22. The Governor, previously concurring with the President of the Representative Junta, shall inform the persons elected of their respective nomination, and indicate to them the day and hour when they are to present themselves to enter on their functions.

23. The Junta of Representatives shall take cognizance of resignations.

24. The substitution for resignations admitted, or other incidental ones, shall be effected by the primary assemblies, in the same manner as is arranged for the general nomination.

CHAPTER II.

ARTICLE 1. The elections of the country shall be regulated according to the tenor of the articles of the preceding chapter, in all that is not excepted by the following articles :

2. The country shall elect eleven representatives, for the same jurisdictions for which the actual representatives are nominated.

3. The Presidents of the electoral assemblies of the country shall be the Alcaldes in their respective jurisdictions, who shall in like manner open them, and receive the oath of the Scrutineers.

4. For the election which belongs to two jurisdictions, there shall be an assembly in each of them, and the Central Board shall meet in the most ancient parish; in the election for which three or more jurisdictions concur, the Central Board shall hold its sitting in the one situated nearest to the centre of the whole.

5. The term within which the members of the Central Board are to assemble, for the elections of the country which demand two or more assemblies, shall be fixed by the Governor.

6. The Governor shall give the necessary orders, to the end that the establishment of Patagonia may elect a representative: and let that decree be carried into full effect.