1. The mandate of a deputy won in accordance with articles 162 and 163 of this Code is interrupted only for the reasons provided in article 71 of the Constitution. Preliminary individual or collective agreements or declarations to withdraw from a seat do not constitute reasons for the interruption of the mandate. In the case of letters (a) and (b) of point 2 of article 71 of the Constitution, the deputy declares publicly, in front of the respective Assembly committee his refusal to take the oath or his withdrawal from the seat. In this case, the Assembly, not later than 30 days, notifies the CEC of the creation of the vacancy. The interrupted mandate passes to the next candidate on the list of the same political party in the respective electoral zone.
2. The CEC takes a decision to pass the seat to the next candidate on the list of candidates registered in accordance with article 67 of this Code. The decision is notified to the candidate and is also published in the Official Journal. If the next candidate does not appear in the Assembly within 30 days from his notification without any justified cause, the seat passes to the next candidate on the list in accordance with the procedure provided in point 1 of this article. The same procedure continues until the exhaustion of the list of candidates of the same political party.
3. If the list of candidates of a political party that is a member of a coalition is exhausted, the seat passes to the party of the coalition that has the largest quotient. If the interrupted mandate belongs to a candidate proposed by the voters, the seat passes to the electoral subject with the largest quotient. If the interrupted mandate belongs to a electoral coalition, the seat is allocated to the party member of the coalition with the largest quotient.
