The Constitution guarantees the parliamentary opposition a place that entitles it to rights that will enable it to discharge its functions fully in parliamentary action and political life. The Constitution is mandated to determine the ways in which opposition teams exercise these rights, as the case may be, under organisational laws, laws or the internal regulations of each House of Parliament.
According to the internal regulations of the House of Councillors, which include how to exercise opposition rights, the opposition benefits from the rights constitutionally provided for in articles 10, 60 (last paragraph), 69 (third paragraph) and 82 (second paragraph), and the opposition's contribution to the formation of organs and to the exercise of its legislative, oversight and parliamentary diplomatic roles cannot be less than represented in the House.
According to article 85 of the House’s internal regulations, parliamentary teams and groups that choose to belong to the opposition must declare so in writing to the President of the House at the beginning and in the middle of the parliamentary term.
Regarding the House’s structure, parliamentary teams and groups that do not opt for membership of the opposition explicitly are considered to belong to the majority.
The above written permit may be withdrawn at any time.
These statements shall be published and edited in the Official Bulletin of Parliament.
Such provisions apply to unaffiliated members of the House.
The parliamentary opposition exercises its constitutional rights by:
1. Participation in the legislative function, particularly through:
• According to Chapter 82 of the Constitution, at least one day per month is devoted to examining law proposals, including those submitted by the opposition.
• Registration of legal proposals on the House's agenda, and a team of the opposition may request the registration of one or more law proposals on the House's agenda, after the deadlines provided for in the internal regulations have been met;
• In accordance with article 82, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, at least five minutes shall be devoted to the examination of the opposition law's proposals at the beginning of the session of the study of law proposals;
• Submission of amendments to opposition groups and groups in the legislative plenary sessions.
2. Participation in the supervisory function, through:
• Allocating a proportion of monthly and weekly oral questions to the opposition, which shall not be less than their representation percentage.
• Proposing, when appropriate, to the Bureau of the House three days after the deposit of the petitioner for government accountability in accordance with the provisions of article 106 of the Constitution, the date and share of the voting session, if the petitioner is approved by an absolute majority of the members of the House.
Representation in the organs of the House of Councillors, through,
• The chairmanship of the Committee on Justice, Legislation and Human Rights shall be allocated to the opposition, the chairmanship of which shall be nominated only to a councillor, in accordance with the provisions of article 69 of the Constitution and article 99 of the present internal regulations;
• Allocation of the post of Chairman or Rapporteur in all interim opposition committees, whether it relates to parliamentary fact-finding committees, thematic working groups, exploratory committees or the House's budget disbursement monitoring committee.
• The opposition shall be given precedence in choosing between the two aforementioned positions, and only a member may be nominated for the chosen position.
• Representation of opposition teams in the interim committees and in the petitions committee in accordance with article 334 of the internal regulations.
• The opposition's contribution to the candidates' proposal and to the election of members of the Constitutional Court, in accordance with the procedures provided for in articles 341 and 342 of the internal regulations.
• Make proposals to the House's Bureau, when appropriate, in order to strengthen the role of parliamentary diplomacy. The opposition contributes at least as much to all parliamentary divisions as it does to its presence in the formation of parliamentary delegations in external functions.
In order to fulfil its constitutional functions, the parliamentary opposition has the right to have the material and human resources to fulfil its functions through credits, expertise and employment spaces, taking into account the requirements of article 52 of the internal regulations.
It should be noted, however, that the change of each parliamentary group or group of members of the opposition results in them losing their previous positions of responsibility.