TRANSITORY ARTICLES
Article 1
This Constitution shall be published at once and, with the greatest solemnity, an oath of allegiance to the Constitution must be taken in order to uphold it throughout the Republic; except for the provisions relating to the election of the supreme federal and state powers, which shall enter into force at once. This Constitution will come into force the first day of May 1917. In such date, the Constitutional Congress shall be formally installed, and the citizen elected as the President of the Republic in the next elections shall swear an oath to exercise the office.
In the elections that must be called in accordance with the following article, section V of the Article 82 shall not apply, and to be in active service in the Army shall not be an impediment to become a representative or senator, provided that such service is not command of forces in the electoral district in question. In the same way, Secretaries and under-Secretaries can be elected for the next Congress of the Union, provided that they definitely resign their position on the day that the respective call is issued.
Article 2
As soon as this Constitution is published, the President of the Republic shall call for elections for the federal powers, endeavoring to do this in such a way that the Congress shall be organized promptly, since it must declare the winner of the elections for the Presidency, after the count of the votes casted, so that the provisions of the preceding article could be complied.
Article 3
The next constitutional term for representatives and senators shall begin to run on September first of last year, and for the President of the Republic from December 1, 1916.
Article 4
Senators bearing even numbers at the next election shall hold office for two years only, in order to change the half of the Senate every two years.
Article 5
The Congress of the Union shall elect the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation next May in order to have the Court installed by June first.
At this election, the Article 96 shall not govern with respect to the proposals of candidates by the local legislatures. However, the elected candidates shall hold office only for the first two-year term established in the Article 94.
Article 6
The Congress of the Union shall have an extraordinary period of session, which will begin on April 15, 1917. In such period, the Congress shall become an electoral college to count the votes, approve the election for the President of the Republic and declare the winner. In this same extraordinary period of sessions, the Congress shall enact the Organic Law for the circuit and district courts and the Organic Law for the Federal District courts, so that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation may immediately appoint the circuit magistrates and district judges. In addition, the Congress of the Union shall appoint the judges of first instance for the Federal District and shall enact all laws requested by the President of the Republic. The circuit magistrates, the district judges and the magistrates and judges of the Federal District must assume office before July 1, 1917, at which time those persons who had been appointed by the current President of the Republic shall resign.
Article 7
This time only, a counting board must be created for each electoral district. The counting board of the first electoral district in each states and the Federal District shall count the votes for Senators, and these boards shall issue the majority certificate to the senators elected.
Article 8
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation shall settle the pending Amparo trials, observing the current laws.
Article 9
The President of the Republic is empowered to enact the Electoral Law, under which, this time the elections shall be held to create the Powers of the Union.
Article 10
Persons who have taken part in the government formed by the rebellion against the legitimate Government of the Republic, or those who cooperated with it, afterwards combating with arms or holding office or employment with the factions that attacked the Constitutional Government, shall be tried under laws in force, unless they have been pardoned by the Constitutional Government.
Article 11
Until the Congress of the Union and the state legislatures enact laws governing the agrarian and labor affairs, the bases established in this Constitution for such affairs shall take effect throughout the country.
Article 12
Mexicans who have fought in the Constitutional Army, and their children and widows, as well as other persons who rendered services to the Revolution or to public education, shall have priority to acquire land according to the Article 27 and shall have the right to discounts specified by law.
Article 13
All debts contracted by workers, by reason of their labor, until the date of this Constitution, with employers, their families, or intermediaries are hereby extinguished in full.
Article 14
The Secretariat of Justice is hereby abolished.
Article 15
Hereby, the President of the Republic is empowered to issue the tort law applicable to the offenders, accomplices and accessories to the crimes perpetrated against the constitutional order during the month of February 1913 and against the Constitutional Government.
Article 16
The Constitutional Congress, in the next ordinary period of sessions starting on September 1 this year, shall enact all organic laws of this Constitution that have not already been enacted in the extraordinary period of sessions mentioned in the sixth transitory article. The Congress shall give priority to laws related to fundamental rights and to the Articles 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 107 and the last part of the Article 111 of this Constitution.
Article 17
Churches, temples and other properties belonging to the Federal Government, based on the provisions established in the section II of the Article 27 of this Constitution, which is reformed through this decree, shall maintain their current legal status.
