CHAPTER XIV. GOVERNMENT AND INTERIOR STATE ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE 110
For the government and internal administration of the State, the territory of the Republic is divided into regions and these into provinces. For the purposes of the local administration, the provinces will be divided into municipalities.
The creation, suppression and denomination of regions, provinces and municipalities; the modification of their limits, and the establishment of the capitals of the regions and provinces, shall be subject of constitutional organic law.
GOVERNMENT AND REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE 111
The superior administration of each region resides in a regional government, which will have as its objective the social, cultural and economic development of the region.
The regional government will be made up of a regional governor and the regional council. For the exercise of its functions, the regional government will enjoy legal personality under public law and will have its own assets.
The regional governor will be the executive body of the regional government, corresponding to it to preside over the council and exercise the functions and attributions that the constitutional organic law determines, in coordination with the other public bodies and services created for the fulfillment of the administrative function. Likewise, it will be responsible for the coordination, supervision or inspection of the public services that depend on or are related to the regional government.
The regional governor will be elected by universal suffrage by direct vote. The candidate for regional governor who obtains the majority of the validly cast votes will be elected and provided that said majority is equivalent to at least forty percent of the validly cast votes, in accordance with what the respective constitutional organic law provides. He will remain in the exercise of his functions for a term of four years, being able to be re-elected consecutively only for the following period.
If more than two candidates are presented at the election of the regional governor and none of them obtains at least forty percent of the validly cast votes, a second vote will be taken, which will be limited to the candidates who have obtained the two highest relative majorities. and the candidate who obtains the greatest number of votes will be elected. This new vote will be verified in the manner determined by law.
For the purposes of the provisions of the two preceding paragraphs, blank and null votes will be considered as not cast.
The respective constitutional organic law will establish the causes of inability, incompatibility, subrogation, cessation and vacancy of the position of regional governor, without prejudice to the provisions of articles 124 and 125.
ARTICLE 112
Repealed.
ARTICLE 113
The regional council shall be an organ of normative, operative and supervisory nature, within the own sphere of competence of the regional government, responsible of making effective regional citizen participation and of exercising the powers that the constitutional organic law entrusts it with.
The regional council will be composed by councilors elected by universal suffrage in direct voting, in accordance with the respective constitutional organic law. They will last for four years in their positions and may be successively re-elected to the position for up to two terms. The same law will establish the organization of the regional council; will determine the number of councilors that will compose it and the way that they are replaced, always ensuring that both the population and the territory of the region are equitably represented.
The regional council may supervise the acts of the regional government. To exercise this power, the regional council, with the assent of one-third of the regional councilors present, may adopt agreements or suggest observations that will be transmitted in writing to the regional governor, who must give a well-founded response within thirty days.
The other supervisory powers of the regional council and their exercise will be determined by the respective constitutional organic law.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, any regional councilor may request from the regional governor or delegate regional presidential delegate the necessary information for this purpose, who must answer in a justified manner within the period indicated in the third paragraph.
The regional councilor that during his term loses any of the eligibility requirements or incurs in any of the disqualifications, incompatibilities, disabilities or other grounds for cessation set in the constitutional organic law, shall cease in his position.
What has been established in the preceding paragraphs in regards to the regional council and the regional councilors shall apply, as appropriate, to the special territories to which article 126 bis refers.
The constitutional organic law shall determine the functions and attributions of the president of the regional council.
The regional council shall approve the budget bill of the respective region considering, for this purpose, the resources allocated to it in the Budget Law, its own resources and those that come from the programming agreements.
The senators and deputes representing the circumscriptions and districts of the region may, at their discretion, attend meetings of the regional council and take part in the proceedings without the right to vote.
ARTICLE 114
The respective constitutional organic law shall determine the form and manner in which the President of the Republic will transfer to one or more regional governments, temporarily or permanently, one or more powers of the ministries and public services created to perform the administrative function, in matters of territorial order, development of productive activities and social and cultural development.
ARTICLE 115
For the government and internal administration of the State referred to in this chapter the basic principle that shall be observed is the search for a harmonious and equitable territorial development. The laws that are enacted to this effect shall ensure compliance and implementation of this principle, also incorporating elements of solidarity between regions, as within them, with regard to the distribution of public resources.
Notwithstanding the resources that for its operation are allocated to regional governments in the Budget Law of the Nation and those stemming from what is established in number 20 article 19, the law will contemplate a proportion of the total of the public investment costs that it determines, with the name of national fund of regional development.
The Budget Law of the Nation shall also contemplate expenditures that correspond to sectorial investment of regional allocation which distribution between regions will respond to criteria of equity and efficiency, taking into account the corresponding national investment programs. The allocation of such expenses at the interior of each region will correspond to the regional government.
On the initiative of regional governments or one or more ministries, annual or multi-year agreements of public investment programming can be celebrated between regional governments and municipalities, of which the compliance will be mandatory. The respective constitutional organic law will establish the general norms that will regulate the signing, implementation, and enforcement of these agreements.
The law may authorize regional governments and public enterprises to associate with natural or legal persons to promote nonprofit activities and initiatives that contribute to regional development. The entities that, for this purpose, are constituted will be governed by the common norms applicable to individuals.
What is established in the preceding paragraph shall be understood notwithstanding what is established in number 21 of article 19.
ARTICLE 115 BIS
In each region there will be a regional presidential delegation, headed by a regional presidential delegate, who will exercise the functions and powers of the President of the Republic in the region, in accordance with the law. The regional presidential delegate will be the natural and immediate representative, in the territory of his jurisdiction, of the President of the Republic and will be freely appointed and removed by him. The regional presidential delegate shall exercise his functions in accordance with the laws and under the orders and instructions of the President of the Republic.
The regional presidential delegate will be responsible for the coordination, supervision or control of the public services created by law for the fulfillment of the administrative functions that operate in the region that depend on or are related to the President of the Republic through a Ministry.
GOVERNMENT AND PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE 116
In each province there will be a provincial presidential delegation, which will be a territorially decentralized body of the regional presidential delegate, and will be in charge of a provincial presidential delegate, who will be freely appointed and removed by the President of the Republic. In the provincial seat of the regional capital, the regional presidential delegate shall exercise the functions and powers of the provincial presidential delegate.
It is up to the provincial presidential delegate to exercise, according to instructions of the regional presidential delegate, the supervision of the public services that exist in the province. The law shall determine the powers that the regional presidential delegate may delegate to him and the others that correspond to him.
ARTICLE 117
The provincial presidential delegates, in the cases and manner prescribed by law, may appoint persons responsible for the exercise of their powers in one or more locations.
MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE 118
The local administration of each commune or group of communes established by the law resides in a municipality, which shall be composed of the mayor, who is its highest authority, and the council. Mayors will be elected by universal suffrage in accordance with the organic constitutional law of municipalities, will last four years in their positions and may be successively re-elected in office for up to two terms.
The respective constitutional organic law will establish the terms and forms that the participation of the local community shall assume in the municipal activities.
The mayors, in the circumstances and manner determined by the respective constitutional organic law, shall be able to appoint delegates for the exercise of their faculties in one or more localities.
Municipalities are autonomous corporations of public law, with legal personality and own patrimony, whose purpose is to satisfy the needs of the local community and assure their participation in the economic, social and cultural progress of the commune.
A constitutional organic law shall determine the functions and powers of municipalities. The said law will also point out the subjects of municipal competence that the mayor, with the agreement of the council or at the request of two-thirds of the councilors in exercise, or of the proportion of citizens established by law, will subject to non-binding consultation or to a plebiscite, as well as the opportunities, form of the convocation and the effects.
Municipalities may associate with each other in accordance with the respective constitutional law, such associations may have legal personality of private law. Likewise, they may constitute or integrate nonprofit corporations or foundations of private law whose purpose shall be the promotion and dissemination of art, culture and sport, or the promotion of communal and productive development works. Municipal participation in them will be governed by the cited constitutional organic law.
Municipalities may establish in the field of communes or group of communes, in conformity with the respective constitutional organic law, territories called neighborhood units, in order to tend towards a balanced development and proper channeling of citizen participation.
Public services should be coordinated with the municipality when they develop their work in the respective communal territory, in accordance with the law.
The law shall determine the form and manner in which ministries, public services and regional governments may transfer competencies to municipalities, as also the temporary or definitive character of the transfer.
ARTICLE 119
In each municipality there will be a council composed of councilors elected by universal suffrage in accordance with the constitutional organic law of municipalities. They will last four years in their positions and may be successively re-elected in office for up to two terms. The same law shall determine the number of councilors and the manner of electing the mayor.
The council shall be a body in charge of ensuring participation of the local community; it will exert normative, decision-making and supervisory functions and other duties that may be required from it, in the manner determined by the respective constitutional organic law.
The organic law of municipalities shall determine the norms on the organization and functioning of the council in the areas in which the consultation of the mayor to the council will be mandatory and those in which the agreement of it will necessarily be required. In any case, the agreement will be necessary for the approval of the communal development plan, the municipal budget and the respective investment bills.
ARTICLE 120
The respective constitutional organic law shall regulate the transitional administration of the communes that are created, the installation procedure of the new municipalities, transfer of municipal staff and services and the necessary safeguards to protect the use and disposition of the assets that are located in the territories of the new communes.
Also, the constitutional organic law of municipalities shall establish the procedures to be applied in case of suppression or merger of one or more communes.
ARTICLE 121
The municipalities, for the fulfillment of their duties, may create or eliminate jobs and set wages, as well as establish the bodies or units that the respective constitutional organic law allows.
These powers shall be exercised within the limits and requirements that, by the exclusive initiative of the President of the Republic, the constitutional organic law of municipalities determines.
ARTICLE 122
The municipalities shall enjoy autonomy in managing their finances. The Budget Law of the Nation may assign them resources to meet their expenses, notwithstanding the income that they are directly conferred by law or are awarded by the respective regional governments. A constitutional organic law shall provide a mechanism for solidary redistribution of income between municipalities of the country under the name of common municipal fund. Distribution rules of this fund will be a matter of law.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 123
The law shall establish coordination formulas for the administration of all or some of the municipalities, with regard to the problems common to them, and between municipalities and other public services.
Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the respective constitutional organic law will regulate the management of the metropolitan areas, and will establish the conditions and formalities that allow vesting such quality to certain territories.
ARTICLE 124
To be elected regional governor, regional councilor, mayor or councilor and to be appointed regional presidential delegate or provincial presidential delegate, it will be necessary to be a citizen with the right to vote, have the other suitability requirements that the law indicates, where appropriate, and reside in the region at least for the last two years prior to their appointment or election.
The positions of regional governor, regional councilor, mayor, councilor, regional presidential delegate and provincial presidential delegate will be incompatible with each other.
The position of regional governor is incompatible with any other job or commission paid with funds from the Treasury, municipalities, autonomous fiscal entities, semi-fiscal entities or State companies or those in which the Treasury has participates by capital contributions, and with any other function or commission of the same nature. Teaching jobs and functions or commissions of the same nature in higher, secondary and special education are excepted, within the limits established by law. Likewise, the position of regional governor is incompatible with the functions of directors or counselors, even when they are ad honorem, in autonomous fiscal entities, semi-fiscal entities or in state-owned companies, or in those in which the State has participation by contribution of capital.
By the sole fact of its proclamation by the Election Qualifying Court, the elected regional governor will cease in any other position, employment or commission that he performs.
No regional governor, from the moment of his proclamation by the Election Qualifying Court, may be appointed for a job, function or commission referred to in the preceding paragraphs. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this provision does not apply in the event of a foreign war; but only the positions conferred in a state of war are compatible with the functions of regional governor.
No regional governor, regional presidential delegate or provincial presidential delegate, from the day of his election or appointment, as the case may be, may be accused or deprived of his liberty, except in the case of flagrante delicto, if the Appeal Court of the respective jurisdiction, in full, does not previously authorize the accusation declaring that there is room for the formation of a case. This resolution may be appealed to the Supreme Court.
In the event that a regional governor, regional presidential delegate or provincial presidential delegate is arrested for flagrante delicto, they will be immediately made available to the respective Court of Appeal, with the corresponding summary information. The Court will then proceed in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
From the moment in which it is declared, by final resolution, that the formation of cause has been made, the regional governor, regional presidential delegate or provincial presidential delegate is suspended from his position and is subject to the competent judge.
ARTICLE 125
The respective constitutional organic law shall establish the grounds for removal from the offices of regional governor, mayor, regional councilor and municipal councilor.
However, the mentioned authorities that have gravely infringed the norms on transparency, limits and control of electoral expenditure, will cease in their posts from the date that the Election Qualifying Court, at the request of the Directive Council of the Electoral Service, declares it by final sentence. A constitutional organic law will indicate the cases in which a serious breach exists.
Likewise, he who loses the office of regional governor, mayor, regional councilor or municipal councilor, in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, shall not be eligible for any public office or job for a period of three years, nor shall he be candidate to popularly elected positions in the two immediate electoral acts after his cessation.
ARTICLE 125 BIS
To determine the re-election limit that applies to regional governors, regional councilors, mayors and councilors, they will be considered to have served for a period when they have completed more than half of their mandate.
ARTICLE 126
A statute will determine how to solve competence issues that may arise between national, regional, provincial and municipal authorities.
Likewise, it shall also establish how to resolve the discrepancies that occur between the regional governor and the regional council, as well as between the mayor and the council.
SPECIAL PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 126 BIS
Easter Island and the Juan Fernández Archipelago are special territories. The Government and Administration of these territories will be governed by the special statutes that the respective constitutional organic laws establish.
The rights to reside, stay and to move from any point of the Republic, guaranteed in number 7 of article 19, shall be exercised in such territories in the manner determined by the special laws the govern their exercise, which shall be of qualified quorum.
