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Article 162
 

Provincial and communal institutions are regulated by law.


The law enshrines the application of the following principles:


1 ° the direct election of members of provincial and communal councils;


2 ° the attribution to the provincial and communal councils of all that is of provincial and municipal interest, without prejudice to the approval of their acts, in the cases and according to the mode that the law determines;


3 ° the decentralization of attributions to provincial and communal institutions;


4 ° the publicity of the sessions of the provincial and communal councils within the limits established by the law;


5 ° publicizing budgets and accounts;


6 ° the intervention of the supervisory authority or the federal legislative power, to prevent the law from being violated or the general interest injured.


The supracommunal authorities are governed by the rule referred to in Article 134. This rule enshrines the application of the principles referred to in paragraph 2. The rule referred to in Article 134 may lay down other principles which it considers essential, with or without a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, provided that the majority of the members of the Parliament concerned are present. Articles 159 and 190 apply to decrees and regulations of supracommunal authorities.


In execution of a law adopted by the majority provided for in the last paragraph of Article 4, the decree or rule referred to in Article 134 governs the conditions and manner in which several provinces, several supracommunal authorities or several communes may to hear or associate. However, several provincial councils, several councils of supracommunal authorities or several municipal councils can not be allowed to deliberate jointly.